In Seven Days
by DragonInk
Summary: Ginny made a decision once and when it goes wrong she wished she could get another chance at the one time she made a bad decision. One night, a man called Janos Elliot gave her that chance. Based Loosely on Family Guy with Nicholas Cage.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

In Seven Days

**Deciding Your Future**

**Friday December 20th 1997**

**_What really happened:_**

"_Draco, I'm – I'm sorry."_

"_Save it Ginny. I don't want to hear it. You've been speaking to your friends haven't you? You must have, only they could try to talk you out of this and succeed."_

_Ginny bent her head. "I have to follow my heart or-."_

"_Or else it'll get crushed by me is that it? If that's what you think Ginny… I obviously don't know you." He got up and made for the door of the classroom. Ginny braced herself for the loud slam but it never came. She looked up to see the door held open centimeters from the frame. It opened once more._

_Draco turned back to her from the corridor. "I would've made you happier than you know." Then, he was gone._

_Ginny sat down for what felt like forever. She just wanted the earth to swallow her whole. She had chosen Harry because she was told it was a better option in the long run. The things that Lavender, Parvati, Hermione and Luna had said to her were utterly preposterous. There was no way that Draco, her Draco, could do anything like that. The more they spoke, however, the more it made sense. What about in the long run? When he got tired of her, as he tended to do with all the other girls he had dated. He would just go. There was nothing to tie him down to her. There would be no reason to stay._

_She saw him again at the end of the school year for the last time. He was getting on the train back to the platform in London. He looked at her then, in a way that made her feel like running to him pleading for forgiveness. But she hadn't. He left for good without a second glance and, though her heart was wreaking havoc in her chest a thousand times over, she let him go._

_She walked behind Harry to the compartment that Hermione had chosen. Harry stood aside to allow her to go first and she smiled at him as she put a foot blindly on the compartment's step. Without warning her foot slipped and it stumbled back to the ground at the same time as the stack of reading Hermione had brought for the train ride fell. She held onto the side of the compartment to steady herself. When she straightened she suddenly looked to her side to see Draco looking at her, leaning against one side of a compartment a few doors down. Though his face was that of stone, she new that glint of concern in his eye._

"_You okay, Ginny?" Harry said above her, he was about to climb in around her. She nodded quickly eager to get rid of that gaze at her left. As she sat down she realised Harry was helping Hermione with her books and had passed her straight. He thought she could handle herself, that's all. He loved her. He had told her so and he wouldn't hurt her like Draco would inevitably do. She nodded to herself as the train jerked forward and smiled._

_She was sure she had made the right choice._

**Friday December 18th 2009**

But now, now after what she had seen. It was proving to be the worst thing she had ever done. She had told him she'd followed her heart but she had only followed her head and the hearts of her friends. It was logical, it was sensible.

But sensible things don't always make sense.

She ran down the stairs of her two story apartment out into the cold night air of London. She wrapped her coat around her and ran out onto the street wondering when the hell it had become winter and blatantly ignored the loud pleas of Harry's voice behind her. She had to leave, she had to… escape.

He had _her_ with him to keep him warm anyway.

---

"_Ginny, I love you. I would never do anything to hurt you. You believe me right?"_

"_Of course, Harry. I will always believe you."_

'_What the hell was I thinking?_' she thought to herself. She thought many things as she sat on the stool at the bar before getting a headache and reprimanding herself for thinking too much and not drinking enough to dull the pain.

"Who the hell did he think he was, promising me forever just to steal me away from Draco so that he could shack up with some other bird and fly off?" She slammed her glass down on the counter as she faced the barman. He looked at her sympathetically. There were too many witches out there that came to this bar to get rid of cheating husbands or boyfriends. Thank Merlin it was a Wizarding bar, or else there would be a lot of explaining to do with muggles who saw stray spells soaring all over the place from an angry witches wand. He smiled to himself.

Ginny squinted to see his face better. Apparently the alcohol had a bizarre effect on eyesight. "Are you laughing at me?" She raised her hands in distress. "Here I am, paying your wages and you're laughing at me? Who do you think you are? Harry?" She gave a spluttering scoff. "I don't think so, you're too good looking and not half thin enough and that scar is dreadfully out of place."

She suddenly burst out in laughter.

The barman shook his head watching the ever changing moods of the witch before him. He hadn't yet seen a laugher. This was definitely new to him. So, he kept watching. Suddenly, she simmered down and rested her head in her outstretched hand. The hand had an empty glass and it was knocking against the bar top.

_Oh, there's my signal._ He reached forward with the bottle in his hand. He was never sure how drinkers knew that their glasses were suddenly full, it was truly fascinating how they wouldn't look but knew exactly when to drink from a newly refreshed glass of alcohol.

"I should have stayed with him," he suddenly heard.

For the first time since she had sat down there, he spoke. "Pardon?"

"I should have stayed with him," she repeated.

"With your boyfriend? I thought he was cheating on you?"

"No," she said waving her hand, "not him. Draco. I should never have turned him down." She smiled. "He told me that he would make me happier than I ever knew." She bent her head and secured it in her arms. "I loved him so much." She began to cry.

_And here's the final stage._ He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her.

She took it gratefully. "Thank you," she sobbed. "I'm sorry."

"No need to apologize love. It's my job."

She smiled at him. "I should have stayed with him. He gave me a choice and I chose Harry, I wish I had chosen him. I'd love to know how things would turn out with him, if only for a day or a week. I'm sure I would have been better off."

"Really?" said a voice to her side.

She jumped and turned to the man who had seated himself beside her. She caught at her chest and breathed deeply. "Who are you?"

"I am about to become your new best friend."

Ginny frowned and looked at the barman. He was watching the man in contempt. "Janos, not now. Not her, she's in grief."

Janos looked at his friend. "Exactly, she needs my help."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

Ginny watched the two of them go at it wondering what the hell they were going on about. The two of them argued like old friends, as if she wasn't there. _Oh well, I can remedy that._

"No."

"Yes."

"I am telling you to leave her alone. She has enough on her plate." He pointed to her but then realised that she wasn't there. Janos followed suit and then turned towards the doors. He watched his friend and smiled evilly.

"So long, my friend, I'm off."

"Janos Elliot, I am warning you."

"That you are, and I am ignoring you."

He ran to the doors to catch up with the woman who he had yet to learn the name of, he reached outside in time to see her turning a corner and sprinted after her. He caught up as she went into a grocery store.

"Hello again."

Ginny turned to him and frowned. "Huh?" she asked wondering who the hell he was.

His smiled slowly dropped. "We… just met in the bar. You were saying something about wanting to find out something?" he tried. She must be really out of her head if she couldn't remember the last three minutes.

She slowed in her stalking of the aisles pondering what he was on about. She suddenly rummaged in her pockets. "Are you talking about my loser boyfriend, Harry?" she said as she retrieved her wand. She looked at him with a straight face. He thought she was about to hex him, she saw this face and burst out laughing ignoring the faces of the other shoppers that passed them.

"Are you alright?" he asked cautiously. She seemed to be changing moods quite often.

"I'm fine. I'm absolutely brilliant." She waved her arms around theatrically. "I gave up the love of my life to settle with a prick of a man who probably only lied to win something or keep my brother happy. You know, I used to wish that Harry would just hurry up and ask me to marry him. Now, I thank my lucky stars. And children, ha! Thank Merlin we didn't have any children." She then fell back on a shelf and dropped to the ground. "I wanted children. I wanted the perfect house with the perfect husband and the perfect children. I wanted someone to love me. I wanted…" She shook her head. "I wanted happiness. I don't think I can call myself happy, do you?" She looked up to him for an answer.

He looked down on her and surveyed the teary eyes and the wand grasped tightly in her hand. She was one of the few who really needed his help. "Are you planning on using that wand?"

She nodded, "Yeah."

"What for?"

"Suicide." She looked up at him. "Or murder, I haven't decided yet." She sighed heavily and stood up. "He's ruined everything. I don't want him around anymore. A good hexing and an unforgivable or two would brighten my day significantly." She moved to go around him and exit the store.

He opened his eyes wide. Would she really go out and kill him? Surely she couldn't. She must have some sense, even if she was plastered. "You don't want to do that," he called after her knowing that she'd turn.

The drunken ones always did.

She turned and frowned at him. "Why not?" she said planting her hand firmly on her hips and reminding herself too much of her mother. She took them off instantly.

He smiled brightly. "I already told you, I'm your new best friend." He moved forward and put an arm over her shoulder. They walked outside into the cold night air. "I'm going to help you out." He cupped her face in his hands and closed his eyes muttering something under his breath. When he opened his eyes he looked at her pointedly. He caught her nervous look.

"Don't worry," he smiled. "In the morning, everything will be _right as rain._"

Suddenly, everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

In Seven Days

**Rude Awakenings**

**Day One**

**Friday December 20th 1997 **

**_What would have happened:_**

_He was getting on the train back to the platform in London. She had stared at him since they had all reached to go home for the summer. As he put one foot on the bottom step to a compartment, he looked at her in a way that made her feel like falling to her knees. She almost did._

_She turned away and could feel him smile sadly at her. When she glanced around, as he must have known she would, he was gone. She turned away again. Harry was talking to Ron and ignoring her completely. Since Christmas holidays had ended, he hadn't spent much time with her at all. He was always preoccupied with something, like Quidditch or helping Hermione with her schoolbooks, typical hero business._

_She had wondered why he had told her he loved her in the first place, she was sure he had done it to keep her brother happy. But he was good to her and he had promised her that he would never hurt her. His promises meant something, he kept them._

_Draco was just unpredictable. He was unjustifiably rude and vindictive; at times she wondered if he had manners at all. He was well known for his cruelty and his malicious behaviour and he gave absolutely no regard to anything he didn't care about._

_But he did care about her. He had driven it into her head numerous times. He was unpredictable, that was the beauty of him. You didn't know what to do around him at times and she had often taken great pleasure in working out his moods until she had mastered them. He was the one who had finally convinced her that she was beautiful. He was different and yet the same. He was… hers, he wouldn't change for anybody and she loved him._

_She loved him. It was as simple as that._

_As she stepped up onto the bottom step of the compartment Hermione had chosen, her foot slipped and went straight to the ground again at the same time Hermione dropped the mass of books she was carrying inside. As she straightened herself up she looked to her side. Draco was watching her. Though his face was that of stone, she new that glint of concern in his eye._

"_You okay, Ginny?" Harry said above her, he was about to climb in around her to help Hermione out. Ginny flushed with a little anger, she had obviously expected Harry to help her and felt a little embarrassed that he hadn't helped her instead. Especially in front of Draco watching them with a mild interest. She wanted to prove to herself she had made the right choice but he hadn't given her any reasons whatsoever. She suddenly had the urge to frown. She grabbed him as he climbed in and turned him around._

"_Harry, what do you think of me?"_

_He frowned, what had brought that on? 'Pardon?" He suddenly looked left to Draco who had taken to leaning against one side of the compartment doors, his interest increasing and obviously listening to their conversation._

"_What do you think of me, who am I to you?" Her stern words made him look at her, really look at her. _

"_I think you're great, you're… you're my girlfriend," he said almost painfully._

_She nodded slowly. "And?" she prompted raising an eyebrow. She almost laughed at him for trying so hard to keep her away from Draco._

"_And… what? What else is there?" he asked._

_That did it._

_She nodded again. "Right." She looked to her left and smiled. "Harry, this isn't going to work, I'm sorry." She left him then and began to walk away from him and towards the right decision. She walked slowly until she saw him step down from the compartment step. She had almost broken out into a run by the time she reached him._

_He smiled as her arms went around his neck and squeezed tight. He lifted her and spun her around._

"_I'm so sorry. I'll never listen to them again," she said into his shoulder._

_He just laughed. "What took you so long?" She climbed inside of his compartment and sat down._

_**Day one:**_

**Saturday December 19th 2009**

Ginny opened her eyes to a dimly lit room that she didn't recognize. She sat up abruptly and scanned it for any evidence of her knowing it. Perhaps she was at a friend's house. She thought back to last night coming to one conclusion.

_Did I go home with someone?_ She found this strange considering the last place she remembered was a grocery store.

There was the sound of water to her right, she leaned forward cautiously to see what it was that could cause a sound like that and saw a door opened ajar to a room with blue tiles. She sat back. It was a shower, and someone was in it. Probably the someone she had gone home with. Why didn't she remember this?

She didn't want to hang around so she got up and ran across the room before she could meet them. As she passed a mirror, she caught herself and moved back again. She saw her face, it looked… different somehow and what she was wearing, she skimmed her hands down the material. _A silk slip? Where could I get a silk slip? _

She spun around wildly. _What the hell is going on?_

She looked around the room for her clothes. She had been wearing clothes last night, she remembered that much. She turned to see an open closet door with a top that resembled something she owned. She went to pick it up hurriedly and looked at it. _Was I wearing this last night? _ She slipped it on and looked for her trousers. She opened the closet door to see if anything else she owned had been thrown in there. When she opened it, she came into contact with more clothes, hanging neatly in the cupboard. She spotted her pair of trousers on the ground and slipped them on. When she stepped back she realised it had come from a woman's closet as most of them were women's clothes.

'_Did I go home with a woman last night?' _she wondered worried. She raised an eyebrow at this sudden turn of event wondering just how drunk she had been.

She took a step forward to inspect it and saw a top that she knew she had seen before. It was green with a light green lace lining along the hem and the straps. Then it clicked, she had seen it two days ago when she was with Harry. She scowled at his name. She had seen it in a shop window on a model. It had looked gorgeous then and it looked even better now. She hated whoever she had gone home with for taking it from her. She was going to buy it when she had enough money for it because Harry said he wouldn't and now it was too late. She shoved it back inside. Merlin she hated that man.

She took one last look at the dream of a wardrobe and was about to sneak out of the room and out of the house when the room suddenly got brighter with the presence of the sun outside and she looked around. It was a pastel blue, she loved pastel blue. She smiled and spun, suddenly feeling the urge for it. As she did, her eyes settled once again on the wardrobe and a certain coat that she knew. She was wearing that coat last night when she stormed out on Harry. It was suede, the most expensive thing she owned that she had bought for herself. She had treasured it since Hogwarts. She wondered what was it doing hanging in the wardrobe.

_What could I have been doing here to have time to put everything away?_

She got curious and proceeded to peering through the rest of it. As she did, she saw more clothes that she recognized but only clothes that _she _had bought for herself. They were all hers and they were next to this other woman's clothes, hanging neatly. All of them, which was strange because she wasn't particularly known for it. She looked up at a shelf above her head. There was a small package on it in purple wrapping paper. She took it down and looked at the small card on the top. It said:

_**Happy anniversary to the only one I love. To my husband.**_

What had she gotten herself into? Whoever she had gone home with was married, no matter what sex they were. As she inspected them, the water was shut off in the bathroom. She hadn't heard it though.

She suddenly felt arms come around her middle and she jumped dropping the gift on the floor. They withdrew a little and turned her around.

"Did I startle you? Sorry." It was a man. A very nice looking man.

A very _familiar_ man.

"Erm…" she stumbled. What could she say, '_Last night was great though I don't remember anything but I have to go now. Sorry for any misunderstandings?_' Not likely. She knew one thing though. She had indeed gone home with a man after all.

"No matter, I'll make it up to you later. I have to go to work now." He kissed her forehead and then kissed her mouth.

She kept her eyes open in shock, not touching him and not knowing what to do. _What is he telling me that for?_ When she wouldn't respond he pulled back and looked at her. "So?" she said.

He frowned. "Have I done something wrong? Is it one of the kids?" he asked.

"Kids? You have children?" _What the hell have I gotten myself into? _

His frown increased. "Gin, are you okay? You look… different. Are you feeling sick?"

Ginny's mouth was trying to form words, really it was, but her mind had so many questions that her mouth didn't know where to start. _Wait, did he call me Gin? No one but my family calls me Gin._ "Don't call me Gin, I hardly know you." She pulled away from him and walked out of the room coming into contact with a corridor that stretched in both directions. _What is this, a maze? God I hate Harry so much right now_. She turned to face him. "How do I get out of here? I need to get home to kill my boyfriend." She noticed he was suddenly fully dressed, in a dark suit with matching tie. She focused on the task at hand.

"Boyfriend?" he asked.

"Yes, not that it's any of your business."

He began to laugh. "That's very funny, Ginny. Boyfriend, you almost had me convinced." He turned to pick up a case on the ground by the bed and walked out to turn left. "Just don't tell Cadence or Sebastian about it, you'll upset them," he said mockingly.

_Who are Cadence and Sebastian? _"Why would I care what _Cadence and Sebastian_ think?" she said to him. She followed him guessing that he was leaving the house as he was obviously going to work.

He stopped and turned to her, his face incredulous. "What?" he said in part shock and part anger.

She raised an eyebrow irritated; her temper was getting the better of her. "Look, just tell me the way out so I can get home."

His look increased. "Ginny, what the hell are you going on about, you are home. Stop it now; you're beginning to scare me." He turned to the stairs and proceeded down them.

_I am home? What?_ She ran after him following him into a kitchen where a child ran to her. She wrapped her arms around her and yelled, "Mum!" Ginny froze, not moving incase she attacked her.

"Erm…" She looked at the man. "Can you remove your child from me so that I can leave?" The girl let go of her and looked at her and then at her father.

"Ginny, I mean it now." He took her arm and led her to the living room. When he was sure the child was out of earshot he began to speak to her. "Enough. Whatever I've done I'll pay you back for it when I get home, just don't do this in front of her." He then kissed her and apparated.

Ginny stood in the living room without moving. She didn't know if it was shock or anger of such an impertinent man. She wasn't sure how long she was standing there but when she came out of her daze, there was a small person watching her. She looked down at her.

_What the hell is she staring at?_ The little girl looked oddly familiar to her.

"Mum, are you going to make breakfast?" she said.

"Why do you keep calling me your mum?" she asked irritated.

The girl raised an eyebrow at her, a perfect carbon copy of the man who had just left.. "Erm… because you are?" she said slowly as if she was crazy. If she was in another of her moods, this was going to be a long day.

"What?" She looked up and around for a possible exit. She contemplated the fireplace. It looked descent enough. The floo powder was right there next to the family portrait if she could just… She did a double take and looked at the picture again. Her face contorted through many levels of confusion.

She was in it.

"What the…"

"Erm, Mum, I think you should go back to bed." She didn't answer.

_What the hell is going on?_ She looked at herself and two children as they sat next to that man… that man, she knew that man. That face, that hair, that…

That _kiss_.

She brought her hand to her mouth, it was trembling. She dropped the picture and it fell to the floor shattering the glass within.

She had to get out of there.

She scrambled up and reached for the floo powder, stood in the fireplace and said two simple words.

"Harry Potter!"

The child went after the floo powder her mother had left on the floor and instantly called for her father. She found him in his office. He looked up at the sudden change in the fire and saw his daughter watching him with a worried face.

"Cadence? What are you doing, why are you making fire calls?" He noted her face. "Where's your mother?" he asked.

"She went by Uncle Harry." He swallowed hard. "Dad, I think there's something wrong with her."

Instantly there was a loud crack, Draco had apparated home.

---

Ginny fell out of the fireplace in an apartment that she recognized instantly. She got up and looked around as she dusted the soot off her clothes. There was a scuffle from the bedroom. She turned to it and narrowed her eyes, suddenly retrieving her mood from last night, and stormed toward it conjuring her wand. The bastard was still with her.

Suddenly, Harry came out of the bedroom in a less than modest – i.e. a sheet – attire. Ginny screwed up her face in horror. He actually had the nerve to brandish it in front of her.

"What the hell are you doing, Harry?" she screamed at him.

Harry looked confused. "Well, Good morning to you too, Ginny. Let me guess, marital bliss getting you down? What is it now, has Malfoy gone and used your soap again?" he laughed as he made his way to the kitchen. He tied the sheet around himself like a towel so he could use his hands.

Ginny stood in the living room, their living room, in shock. "Malfoy?" she said quietly. "I'm married to him."

Harry looked around a cupboard. "Yes," he said slowly not knowing where this was going, "for almost seven years now. Is there something bothering you because Hermione and I were-."

"Hermione?" She knew he had someone else but he had no idea it was-.

"Yes, Hermione – Ginny, are you feeling okay?"

"Funny, I was about to ask the same question." Ginny spun around to see Malfoy walking through the fire into their living room. She was now stuck between two men. She all of a sudden had an image of Hogwarts twelve years ago. _Merlin is it really twelve years?_ She shook it off and back to the situation at hand. "I'm sorry, Potter, can you excuse us a second?"

"It's my house."

"Yes and she's my wife, you'll get her back in a minute."

"Wife?" she said a little too loud.

Draco looked at her like he had in the bedroom. Harry sighed loudly. "Are you two having a fight because, if you are, could you not break anything this time? I don't know why you have to come here every time something goes wrong." He kept muttering until he closed the door to his bedroom.

Draco stepped forward. As he did, Ginny mimicked his actions and moved away. She didn't know what was going on and she didn't like it. "Gin." He moved again.

"Don't!" she said moving back again, "Don't come near me. I don't know what tricks you guys are playing but it's not funny, stop it." She moved back again. "And don't call me Gin."

Draco, who up to this point had been angry at her for leaving their child in the house alone, suddenly felt concerned about her. She was acting as if she really believed she didn't know him.

She began to ramble incoherently. "Last night, last night I was here and I walked in on Harry…" She went teary again. "I went to a bar and this guy he-." She struggled to remember. "He said he could help me. He said everything would be right as rain." Her gaze snapped up to Draco again. "I have to find him."

Draco had been listening. "Ginny, you didn't go anywhere last night, you were with me. I don't know what's wrong with you but I need to get you home."

"I am home!" she screamed and disapparated.

---

The morning air was even worse than it was last night. She wandered the streets of London trying to remember where the bar was that she went to the night before. It was well after midday when she found it. She went inside and recognition came over her. She remembered this place but it looked… different, like everything else, like she was seeing it again for the first time.

The barman, he was there again. She rushed to him and grabbed for his sleeve to get him to look at her. "Tell me that you know who I am." He frowned at her.

His face relaxed as understanding spread and replaced his frown. He had seen this mood before, on many witches and wizards who had made a choice some time in their lives. "Janos. The bastard. He found you, didn't he?"

Ginny felt relieved. She sighed heavily. "You remember me?" she said with hope.

He shook his head, "No I don't. Did Janos find you?"

She thought for a while, he must mean the guy that had tracked her to the store. "Yes, I think he did, after I ran out."

He leaned across the bar top to talk to her more quietly. "Where did he find you, after you ran out where did he find you?"

"In a grocery store I think." She sat down.

He grabbed her arm and maneuvered her to stand again. "Go to it."

She relented after a brief moment of struggle. "What?"

He walked with her around the bar. "Go to wherever he tracked you to. It's the only place you'll be able to find him after he casts it. After that, he'll find you."

"Cast what?" She broke free of his grasp and glared at him. She wanted answers and she wanted them now. "What is going on?"

"He'll explain it to you, just go." He pushed her through the door and closed them behind her.

She left the bar and wandered down the road to the grocery store she had entered the night before. When she went inside, she saw him stacking shelves in aisle four. She approached him cautiously, not knowing what to say to him. He worked in the same grocery store. Here she was thinking he was a powerful wizard or something. The store was really full of people, maybe she shouldn't be disturbing him at work. But then, she did want to find out what the hell was going on.

"Back so soon?" he said without turning around. "Has something gone wrong?" When she didn't answer, he turned around to face her from his position at the bottom shelf.

She looked at him. "My whole life has changed."

He made a compromising face and then turned back to the shelves. "For better or worse?" He suddenly stood with a can in his hand.

"I-."

"Never mind." He got up and put an arm around her shoulder giving the last can in his hand to a passerby with a label on his shirt that said, 'Manager,' as he left the store. Ginny looked back into the busy store full of customers. No one even noticed he had left.

They walked for a while in silence, the questions still streaming through Ginny's mind. When they crossed the last road into Regent's park, they continued along the concrete pathway.

"What's going on?" she asked him.

He rested his arm on her shoulder. "It's what you asked for."

She broke away causing him to stumble a little. "What? I didn't ask for this!"

He nodded slowly as if she had said something that didn't make sense but was agreeing anyway. "Yes, yes you did. You said you wished you hadn't chosen him, you said in that wish that you wanted to find out what it would have been like if you had chosen, 'Draco,' instead." He shrugged. "Whoever that is." He turned to her. "You did, however, describe him to me as the love of your life. It wasn't much to work with but I found it." He sat down on a nearby bench.

Ginny slowly followed suit. "I – I asked for that?"

"Yes, you wanted to know what it would feel like if only for a day or a week. I," he said pointing gloatingly to himself, "have given you a week." She just looked at him. "Seven days to see how different your life would be if you had gone to him that day at Hogsmeade station, if you had turned your currently, soon to be ex, boyfriend down and run to him instead. You only have six left now, most people waste the first day tracking me down. Some are too overwhelmed with joy to leave," he said more to himself with a smile.

Ginny's eyes opened wide. The day she had let him go? "But, I don't even remember any of it. I have children that I don't remember having and, I'm married. I would like to remember my wedding at least!"

"I'm sorry, those are the rules. You get a peek for the time you requested. You learn what the effects of your choices were and in the end it returns to normal."

"So, I just have to ride this out for a week and then I get to go back and murder Harry?"

He laughed. "Yeah. If you still need to."

She nodded with a deep breath. "Okay, I can do that. Only six days left after today, not that bad. How hard could it be?"

He looked at her with a knowing face. "That's what they all say." He stood up from the bench. "This is a journey of self discovery, Ginevra. Whatever you do or say will not be remembered by them, only you. I'm telling you this because many people who have taken this same journey have come to me not wanting to go back to how things were before. They fall in love with their alternate life. They fall in love with what could have been… as you will too."

She scoffed. She had already been driven up the wall by him, six days more of it would not make all the difference in her opinion. "I doubt that."

He smiled knowingly and walked away. "They always do," he said quietly as he left Ginny on the bench by herself.

---

Ginny apparated back to Malfoy's late in the evening. She had tried to come up with a probable story. If she remembered anything about Draco he didn't like to be out of the loop, no matter how indifferent he acted. He was waiting for her in the living room and called to her the second he heard her return.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Ginny?" he said angrily. "Why are you acting like this? Something is wrong I know it, just tell me what it is."

"Malfoy, nothing is wrong."

"Malfoy? Its Malfoy now is it?" He gave an empty laugh. "Okay then, fine. Go ahead." He sat down and waited for her to speak.

She just shook her head. He was annoying her already. Why were men so annoying?

"I'm going to bed."

"What?"

"You heard me. I don't think I have any need to repeat myself." With that, she retraced her steps of this morning and made her way upstairs.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

In Seven Days

**Staying Out of the Way**

**Day Two:**

**Sunday December 20th 2009**

Ginny had spent most of this day in her room. Draco Malfoy had avoided her and had consequently moved into a spare room down the hall. She looked out into the frozen garden. It looked beautiful in winter, not that she had seen it in any other season.

Sometime in the afternoon her stomach refused to be ignored any further and she left the house, apparating to a small establishment on the border of Diagon Alley. It was her biggest haunt when she was with Harry and she had always loved the food. It was like a comfort when nothing else was working. At least she knew her stomach would never stop working.

She sighed as the familiar bell over the door rang and she sank into her special corner by the window inhaling the wonderful smell of pancakes and toasted sandwiches. She breathed out convinced she was in heaven.

Just then a well mannered waitress bid her a good afternoon and welcomed her before asking what she would like. The waitress hadn't looked at her though. When she did, however, she gasped.

"Mrs. Malfoy! I didn't expect you here so soon. How are the children?" she said happily. "Little Sebastian is so sweet how do you live without wanting to eat him up?" she leaned warmly on the table and watched Ginny as if she knew her so well.

Ginny's scowl was indescribable. "What? Not here too!" Her favourite eatery in the world was tainted.

The waitress frowned in confusion. "Mrs. Malfoy, are-."

"Am I alright? Yes, I'm bloody fine!" She got up and stormed out of the front door. She fumed down the street into muggle London where she was sure Malfoy would never set foot into without a bloody good reason.

"That wasn't very nice. She was only being polite." She spun around to see the maker of her hell.

"What do you want?"

"I just wondered why you feel the need to treat this as a curse. Do you know how many people would love to get their hands on a second chance?" Janos stopped her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as they walked down Oxford Street and entered The Underground train station.

"How is this," she said opening her arms, "a second chance?" She watched him as he walked into an office and picked up a fluorescent orange jacket. As he came out, he put it on and they moved to an escalator. As they went down he turned to her and smiled.

He smiled to himself. "Stage two," he said to himself so she didn't hear. He turned to her and said louder, "What do you mean, 'How'?" He took her hand and pulled her onto the side and they slid down the black belt. When they landed, he helped her up. "Ginevra, I can call you Ginevra can't I?"

She gave him a look that said she didn't care. "Yeah, I suppose so."

"Good," he smiled and they stepped on board a train. "Now, Ginevra, I have given you the experience of a lifetime. Don't tell me that I was wasting my time." They walked to the front of the train and he opened the door to the driver's compartment with a key he pulled out of his jacket. "I don't appreciate wasting time." He pressed numerous buttons and pushed a lever forward before the train started to move. They passed two stations before he promptly took off the jacket and they exited and left it on the lever before they walked through the station and up a flight of stairs into the cool winter air.

Somewhere between the station and outside Ginny realised that the man had _driven a train_.

"Do you work there?" she asked as she followed him down the street trying hard not to slip on the frosty pavement. It was only yesterday that he was working in a grocery store.

He turned to her with a confused look on his face. "Where?"

She raised an eyebrow at the question. "There." She pointed to the station they had just left.

He laughed. "Me? No! Gods no. Ooh, we're here." He moved into an alleyway and she followed him into it and entered a door on the left. When she reached inside, she saw a large department store. They had entered from the side entrance.

She caught herself and looked around. She knew this place. "I've been here before. I usually avoid coming here because…" she laughed quietly to herself. "The damn witch who created it took my idea."

He looked at her knowingly. "And what idea is that?" he prompted her as he pressed a button for the elevator.

"To have a department store that sold everything. That incorporated all the biggest stores. I said it would have all the usuals of a muggle store. Women's clothes, men's clothes, children's clothes and all sorts. Maybe a little magical incorporation too, with a link to Diagon Alley. The name is even similar. I don't like it here, can we leave?"

"Why?" he said entering the lift. He waited for her and she eventually huffed and followed him in. She turned to the glass of the quite large cubicle and faced the rest of the department looking at the name of the store that stood out at the top of the swinging doors. Her eyes stuck on the motto at the bottom of the sign.

"**A little bit of magic goes a long way…"**

"Bastards." She then realised that Janos had asked her a question. "Erm… I just told you why." He pressed the button for the top floor.

"Well, let's see what you think of it in about ten seconds."

"What?" she frowned. This man was full of riddles.

"Nine," he said looking at his watch.

"What are you -." She rolled her eyes and turned to look at the doors ignoring him as best she could.

"Eight, seven…"

"Stop that -."

"Six, five, four, three, two…" The doors to the elevator opened and Ginny came face to face with a young woman she knew as her sister-in-law.

"Ginny!" Lavender cried relieved. "Where the hell have you been, we've been waiting for you forever! Here, sign this." She held out a piece of parchment with the letterhead of the company.

"What? Why? Are we going shopping or something?"

"Erm… no. Ginny, we need you to sign this so the next shipment can be ordered. I need to print out the invoice to send it to them."

"Who?" She turned to Janos but he was gone. _I work here? I must be hard up for cash then, I hate it here._

"The warehouse! Ginny, where have you been? You were supposed to be here hours ago. Draco said you were feeling ill but you never miss a day. Especially today."

"What's today?"

"The opening of the connection!" she said frustrated.

"Huh?"

"To Diagon Alley, Ginny. You've only been talking about it for months. The Ministry finally allowed it and the Aurors are here to secure it for you so no muggles can see anyone coming out. Come on, we're late." She stopped and looked at her only now noticing her. "Ginny, what are you wearing?" she said almost disgusted.

Ginny looked down. Lavender was looking at her as if she were dressed as a flobberworm. "My clothes."

"We're meeting your father and most of the other ministers, Ginny," she said slowly as if it were obvious. She turned around in a huff and looked around. "Here," she said suddenly grabbing a suit from a rack and giving it to her before pushing her in a changing room.

Ginny stood there trying to figure it all out. She took out her wand at Lavender's incessant pleas to hurry up and switched the clothes' places so her home clothes were on the hanger and the suit was on her. She had to admit it didn't look that bad, which she hated because she hated this store.

"Are you done?"

"Yeah."

"Well, hurry up!" She dragged her out and they continued through a door into an auditorium with a small stage where a man she guessed was the minister, due to the hat and the fact he was her father.

He looked up at the opened door and his eyes went bright as he addressed the crowd. "Ah, there she is! Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome the owner of this fine establishment. Mrs. Ginevra Malfoy!" Every member of the audience turned to her with smiles and the hall erupted in applause.

In Ginny's head, everything went silent.

_What?_ Was all that registered in her mind. It echoed a few times too.

Lavender dragged her forward to the stage sensing her sudden static trance. As Ginny was led to the front of the auditorium, Lavender placed a small piece of parchment in her hand. When Ginny looked at her in shock, Lavender just smiled. "You're speech; you forgot it in the office."

Still in a state of shock, Ginny just nodded and stepped onto the platform. She stood at the podium in the middle after her father hugged her tightly and exited on the left.

She stared at the crowd. Most of her family was there, so was Harry and Hermione. Next to them sat Draco, that little girl and her mother sat next to him with a small boy on her lap that Ginny recognized from the family portrait. It was her son. Her eyes went to the previous row. In front of all of them sat Janos Elliot. He was looking at her with a determined face. He mouthed one simple word to her that made her realise she was being waited on by a large crowd of eager wizards.

_Breathe_

She did and looked down at the parchment laying it on the podium before her. As her hands touched the wood, she suddenly felt at home in front of so many people like she did it everyday. She faced them again with a bright smile and pointed her wand at her throat to make her voice louder. She read the speech as if she had written it. She probably had.

"Welcome today my friends," she began. "Today we celebrate a day that I have dreamed of for three years." _Three years?_ "I, despite popular opinion, knew this would happen though. After months of deliberation and confrontations on both mine and the Ministry's part, we will now be able to make another connection between the Muggle and Wizarding world without trepidation. Many of us here know that shopping for quality at a convenient price has always been slightly difficult due to the limited locations we have reserved for ourselves. It was always known that something had to be done to aid this. I took it upon myself to fix this problem and, as most of my family will tell you if you ask, when I set my mind to something, I never back down." There were smiles and amounts of laughter. "Even when it gets ugly. And it did. So you see, I knew this would happen. Fate, as we know, is inevitable but as it seems still surprising when it comes around. The shock I had when my decree was passed in the courts was overwhelming." _You can say that again_. "I am just happy to see that so many others felt the same way." _ (Turn and open arms to curtain.)_

She read the last bit in her head and figured they must be instructions. She turned and opened her right arm to the curtain and it pulled back. It opened to a large dark area which brightened to what looked like a whole new shopping centre full of Wizarding shops. Some of them were branches from Diagon Alley itself.

Gasps were heard in the crowd.

She read the last part of the speech.

"This, is my thanks to all those who believed in my dream."

_Wow, I'm good,_ she thought as the hall erupted in applause again. Her father entered the stage again and took hold of the red and green twisted ribbon that separated the auditorium from the large area of shops.

"I think there are two special people who want to cut this, isn't there?" he said to the crowd. Instantly Ginny's children ran up to the stage. They ran to their grandfather and he helped them hold the knife safely.

Ginny turned to the crowd. "Ladies and Gentlemen. I give you, 'Diagon Crossing.'" The ribbon fell and the applause started up again. Ginny looked down to Janos' seat with a smile but he was already gone. Instead she smiled at Draco who smiled back her, despite the cold stare he had on before.

---

The evening drew out until late and Draco made their excuses to leave with the children. Molly, however, did not want to let her grandson go.

"Can't he stay for one more night? Cadence can come too."

Cadence abruptly shook her head and buried herself into her father. He smiled. He knew what she was running from. Tomorrow was tea with the Ministry Wives. A whole set of grown women would be at the burrow tomorrow morning with frightening faces and those damn pinching hands. It had taken a few days for the swelling to go down last month. Cadence had learned her lesson well. Sebastian, however, had not been to one before.

"I want to go." He held his grandmother tight.

"Fine, he can stay." He took hold of his son to hug him goodbye and whispered in his ear, "I'll leave the ice out for you tomorrow when you come home." He passed his confused son back with a small laugh and looked around the room with a frown to find his wife, his wife that wasn't acting anything like his wife. Until tonight.

He found her talking to someone but couldn't see who it was because there were so many people in the way. By the time he got to her though, whoever it was had gone. She stood watching him and the smile she had worn before disappeared. She looked down to the girl holding his hand. She still had the look in her eye as if she didn't know who Cadence was and his anger at her from before came back.

"Are you ready to go now?" he said flatly.

She looked around. Lavender gave her a thumb up and she turned back to him. "Yeah, I can leave now."

"Good." He apparated and shortly after she followed.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

In Seven Days

**It's not so Bad**

**Day Three**

**Monday December 21st 2009**

Ginny sat down in the kitchen finally after spending twenty minutes looking for it the next morning. This new found life was not exactly doing anything for her. Sure the house was nice, everything seemed perfect but she was sure something bad was on the horizon. Nothing could be this good. That same little girl, Cadence was it? She had come downstairs and hugged her again which hadn't made anything easier. She was still adjusting to things and when she hadn't responded as much as the girl was obviously used to she had pulled away and left the kitchen.

She hadn't felt very good about that.

Then, there was a fire call. She had jumped out of her skin, again, when three people had called to "catch up on the weekly gossip." Was she really just like other housewives that had nothing else to do? She didn't like the sound of them at all.

The last caller, however, she had to like. It was her mother.

"Ginny! What has gotten into you? Draco had to call me last minute the day before to look after Cadence. Are you both having a fight? Should I keep Sebastian for a bit longer? Not that I mind, he's such a sweet boy."

"Sebastian?" she said perplexed.

Her mother raised an eyebrow in a surveying manner. Ginny hated it when she did that. It was as if she were seeing straight through her, she was sure she actually could. "Your son, Ginevra." That did it, that name only meant she was in trouble.

"Oh, yeah," she said. "Sure, keep him," she said offhandedly and waved a hand casually. She got up to put her breakfast plate in the sink.

"Ginevra, is something wrong? Is there something going on that I should know about?" she said in _that _tone. The one tone she could never lie to.

"Um, no mum. Of course there isn't. Why would anything be wrong?" She smiled guiltily, not even her other self had learnt to lie to her mother yet. This woman was impossible.

"You're sure now? I don't want any bad relations in the family."

"She's fine, Molly," Ginny heard behind her. "She was actually about to get dressed."

Ginny turned around to see Draco standing behind her. The stony look was still there but it had softened if anything as he spoke.

"Oh yes, I forgot. Where're you taking her?"

"Well that's a surprise now isn't it? Will you excuse us?"

"Oh of course love," she said with a smile. It left as she turned to her daughter. "I'll speak to _you_ later," she directed at Ginny and left the fire.

Ginny turned to him again. The look had hardened once more. He was still angry at her. She knew she shouldn't care but her other self must have taken over her somehow, like it had yesterday, because she felt decidedly guilty for it. Honestly, she had an urge to apologise to him.

"Thank you," she managed.

"No problem, I couldn't have you saying how you really felt to your mother now could I? That pleasure is reserved for me." He crossed his arms as if waiting for her to spill it. He had saved her from one distress for her to pay for it in another. Figured.

"I guess I should get dressed then," she said softly and made to go past him. As she did, he caught her arm.

"Ginny, please."

She didn't know what to say. When she looked at him, she saw he really wanted to know. He was concerned, she knew it, and she knew that look. Harry had never looked at her that way. He always said she could look out for herself, she declared it often enough so there was no point in forcing help onto her. She had kind of admired him for giving her the space to be herself, but she would have killed for someone to look at her that way.

"I want to know what's wrong with you, please."

"I'm fine, Draco. I'm just a little tired, that's all. Last night took a lot out of me," she lied. If anything it had exhilarated her. She owned her own business. Owned, the word never sounded so sweet.

"I don't believe you." He narrowed his eyes at her. She bit her lip. "You're nervous," he said looking at her action. "There is something bothering you, I want to know what it is. You're not acting like yourself, you look at me like you've never seen me before and Cadence, she was crying in her room just now. What is going on?"

_Wouldn't you like to know?_ She looked at him. The genuine concern was getting to her, it was worse than her mother. Under that gaze she had to give in. The lie she had perfected last night had been brewing and now it was time to serve.

"Oh god I'm so embarrassed." She feigned her best upset face. "I woke up two days ago…" She tried to find the right word. She was a little scared and a tad bit angry. "A little confused," she compromised. "I took a potion to erm… make me feel younger," she said with sudden inspiration. "It must have backfired because not only did I feel younger but I was younger. I didn't know why you were looking at me like that, or why you kept saying we were married. I didn't know… why I was so old. It scared me." She really hoped he was buying this. It looked like it. "Everything was different and I had to get away. I had children, I had a family! I was seventeen I didn't even know how to handle my own family – with my brothers I mean. It freaked me out so I went to the only person I thought I could that wasn't you."

He sighed. "Potter."

"Yeah, P – Harry." She sat down with a sigh. The little girl, her daughter, was upstairs crying because of her. She hadn't meant to do that. She felt wretched for treating a child like that. Janos was right. She had been put into a place where she could find out what her life would have been like and she wasn't even making the most of it. Just spending it in the kitchen and in her room doing nothing and upsetting everyone. It wasn't her normal self, she got that from the constant, 'Are you feeling alrights?', and the numerous, 'Your not yourselves.' She sighed on her stool and looked at M- her husband. She'd have to get use to that too. "She held me and I had no idea who she was. This morning it still felt a little strange but I didn't mean to upset her," she said truthfully. As long as she was here, she might as well make a go of the role. If she was going to make the most of this, she would have to start from the beginning again. "It's worn off now, thoroughly, and I'm back and freak-out free," she smiled.

He regarded her with cautious eyes. His face relaxed and he got up to make his way to her. "I was worried about you. You were acting as if you didn't even know me."

"I know, I'm sorry," she said standing with him and welcoming his embrace. She hadn't done anything to deserve it and yet, he had forgiven her anyway. She wouldn't have done that.

Harry wouldn't have done that.

"Why did you even want to be younger, you're beautiful," he said in her ear.

She couldn't help the smile from forming. "Really?" she asked. No one had told her that before. Not even her idiot of an _ex_ boyfriend that was now… well, just a friend she supposed. The most she had gotten was a, 'You're great.' Draco however, said it as if he said it everyday, just like he used to in school. She kind of liked it.

"Of course you are," he said kissing her neck. She closed her eyes smiling. She was certain if she had met him now she would certainly not have been able to resist him. She never could. Except once and she was beginning to regret it even more. She was now in a different life though, a life where it never happened. A place where she was happy, where she felt she was loved. She was in love with him; she guessed this had always been in the back of her mind somewhere. He had given her everything she had wanted from Harry. She was obviously happy, that was the only thing she had ever wanted. Draco had given it to her and he, unlike Harry, had kept his word. The word that her friends had convinced her he wouldn't.

She had made the wrong decision after all. But she could fix all that; Janos had given her another chance, one that she wasn't going to give up. Five days, she'd have five days of happiness and then go back to her old life and no one would be any the wiser. She smiled.

He licked the hollow of her throat as his hands slid higher. She shivered involuntarily moulding herself to him as he kissed along her jaw. Their mouths met perfectly as he hugged her tightly, so deep and forcefully that she ran out of air. She lost herself in an exploration of his mouth as they apparated upstairs. Gasping for breath, she backed off pulling at his shirt to bring him closer.

---

"Happy Anniversary," she heard behind her. She opened her eyes and turned over to see a broad smile and a small package being handed to her. She smiled and took it, tearing the paper apart and suddenly realised it was the same box she had seen two days before on a chest of drawers. It was then that she remembered the other package she had dropped in the wardrobe. She stopped and conjured her wand summoning it for him.

"Happy anniversary." He smiled at her and ripped it open. She continued with her massacre and discovered a small dark wood box with intricate carvings along the side of flowers. Lilies, her favourite. A tear came out of nowhere. She turned it over; there was a winder at the bottom between the legs of it. She twisted it until it couldn't move anymore. When she opened the lid, it started to play a tune. She had heard it before, somewhere… her mouth opened. It was the song that they had first danced to. The day he had told her he loved her. She may not have been fond of him yesterday but it was so overwhelming that she almost cried.

She fell in love with him all over again.

"You like it then."

She turned to him and kissed him soundly, the tears poured out of her eyes. She pressed closer to him as his hands ran down her side, her arms wrapped around his shoulders. Ginny pressed a soft kiss against his neck. It felt like she had been here forever, how could that be if she had only been there for two days? She knew there would be some chemistry but this; this was beyond any of her hopes.

"I think, I think I'm in love with you," she whispered.

"After seven years you're just working this out?" She had her head on his shoulder, her leg casually tossed over his thigh. "I love this, by the way, but just because you 'accidentally ruined,' the last one didn't mean that you had to make a new one." She looked over to see what he held in his hand. It was a key. The key chain had a string of letters on it that spelt, 'Preference.' "I love the name, did you change that too?"

She desperately wanted to know what he was talking about. "Well, you'll just have to take me to find out, won't you?" she said with a teasing tone that surprised even herself.

He raised his eyebrows. "I guess I will," he smiled and kissed her again.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. He stopped and turned toward the door. "Come in," he called. The door cautiously opened and both of them eventually had to lean to try to see around the door to who would open a door like that. It was Cadence. "Sweetheart," he smiled and waved her in.

She looked in Ginny's direction stalling for a few moments. Ginny felt worse than she had before, she had caused that stall. She sat up and opened her arms. "Come on." She smiled for good measure. The girl suddenly burst out smiling and ran to her mother swinging her arms around her.

"See, it's not that hard is it?" Draco said to her with a smile. "Cadence, could you just wait outside for a minute, mum will be right there." She smiled at her father and nodded before kissing Ginny on the cheek and running outside shutting the door behind her.

"She's so beautiful," she said absently sitting back on her pillows.

"Hmm, takes after her mother." She smiled and shut her eyes. "Come on, take a shower and get dressed. I'll ask a house elf to fix us a dinner." She opened them again and looked at him. He was standing up in his boxers looking around the room.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

He shook the key in front of her. "I'm going to find out just what you did to it."

_To what?_ She felt like asking that more than once as she showered and dressed. They apparated with Cadence into a small docked area filled with boats. _Oh my god, we own a boat? Hold on, he said I ruined it. _"I ruined your boat," she said as more of a statement than a question. She guessed it was the right statement.

He shook his head. "It was nothing really, I've been meaning to get it fixed to tell you the truth but I just never had time. I suppose it's in the same place?" he asked her and pointed ahead of him with the basket in his hand.

She nodded with raised eyebrows. "I should certainly hope so."

They walked along different aisles along hundreds of boats whose sails towered above them. If she had wanted to fix it, she couldn't possibly have spent money on anything big right? Then again, she did own her own business. She couldn't help the smile. She didn't notice when Draco had stopped, Cadence had to hold her back from walking any further.

"Oh, Ginny, she's beautiful."

She snapped her gaze at a slightly larger boat to the ones around her. It was a pristine pastel blue, and its sails were a brilliant white. There was slanted script along the stern that read, "Preference." It was beautiful. "All of our favourite things in one place, she's perfect, Ginny." He turned and kissed her. "Thank you."

She took in a deep breath and smiled. "Erm. You're welcome." She watched as he boarded and picked Cadence up with him. "Ginny?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you possibly go for Sebastian, Cadence wants to sail."

"Erm, okay then," she said and apparated to her mother's home immediately to be bombarded with a small boy that ran to her with his arms out, she bent as he ran at her to pick him up. "O-Kay," she said in surprise as his arms wrapped around her neck. He appeared to be crying. She shushed him instinctively and rocked from side to side. His cheeks were bright red.

"Sebastian get back here!" she heard as her mother came rushing into the kitchen. "Oh, Ginny dear, you startled me. Is something wrong?"

"No, mother everything is perfect. We were going to sail Draco's boat now and I just came for Sebastian." The small boy tightened his fists in her robes.

"Oh well the girls wanted to say goodbye but that's lovely. As long as you're alright there's nothing to worry about. Have a nice time."

"I will mum," she said and apparated back to the dock. Draco had already stirred the engine and was ready to disembark. He looked at her with a smile but frowned when he noticed how Sebastian was clinging to her for dear life.

"Oh, what happened to him?"

She smiled. "I think mum was terrorizing him."

He smiled knowingly. "Again? Oh no, well no Grandma for Sebastian for the rest of the week, Okay?" The boy suddenly smiled brightly as he turned around and hugged his father in gratitude. "I don't know what's wrong with her, she's fine to me." He said as he put the boy down to run to his sister. He gave her his hand to get on board.

"Yeah, she would be." He laughed.

As they set sail, Ginny sat at the bow staring at the water below as it split to both sides and rippled along the sides of the boat. The wind hit her face and she welcomed the free feeling of it. The sails rustled and pulled on their ropes as the wind told their direction and she smiled. She had never sailed before, unless you counted the small boats on the way to Hogwarts gates. She turned as her son tapped her shoulder and smiled at her. She moved a little so that he could sit with her and they both stared out at the horizon. They sailed for hours and it was crossing through evening when they docked. Sebastian and Cadence were already asleep by the time they got off and walked to the main office to sign in again.

Sebastian slept soundly in Ginny's arms. She couldn't help the smile that refused to go away. She didn't even know these children but the knowledge that they were hers felt like she never wanted to let go. There was that grim feeling she kept getting when, for the thousandth time that day, she was reminded of her limited time. She waited outside with a sleepy Cadence on a chair in the waiting area with Sebastian on her lap and waited for Draco to finish signing in the boat and giving the club his key.

When he returned, he found Ginny to be doing a rather good impression of a mattress as both children were leaning on her fast asleep and dead to the world. "Help me," she mouthed and he smiled. She melted instantly.

He woke Cadence and scooped her up into his arms. Walking to the apparition bay in silence, Ginny kept chancing glances at them. He turned to her. "What?" he asked.

She was caught off guard and looked away. "Huh?"

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?" she laughed.

"Like we're on a first date or something." He stopped in the apparition room and faced her wondering why she had stopped at the door.

_Because we are,_ she thought to herself and walked in after him. "No reason." She smiled and they apparated home.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

In Seven Days

**Christmas Shopping**

**Day Four**

**Tuesday December 22nd 2009**

Ginny turned over and felt a something solid blocking her mid-roll. She opened her eyes slowly as she lay on her back and saw the smiling face of her husband staring down at her. She gasped aloud and covered her face with one of her hands. It may be quite lovely to be studied like that but this whole waking up next to him thing was still something she would need to get use to – and fast. She just couldn't be jumping whenever she saw him like this. She was meant to be married to him, for quite some time if she had her facts correct. When she parted a few fingers to look at him, he had tilted his head to the side and was looking at her as if he were trying to decipher a particularly complex equation.

"Is something wrong?"

She removed her hand. "No, you just scared me." She hit him playfully on the arm.

"Scared you?" he repeated adding to the look he was wearing. After all, who else would be there to wake her up? He had done it before. Quite a few times actually.

"Yes. It's nothing honestly."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Okay then," he shrugged letting it go. "Well, you have to get dressed. We're leaving in an hour." He got up and made for the door.

It was then that Ginny realised that he was fully dressed, in a coat and everything. She sat up and stared at him as he opened the door to leave. She knew she was probably supposed to know the answer to this question but she had to ask it anyway. "Where are we going?" And, as she predicted, he turned with that confused look she had seen him sport ever since she got there.

He once again took a few seconds to stare wonderingly at his wife. "We're going shopping for Christmas. Have you forgotten? You've only been pestering for weeks."

"I have?"

He crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. "Do you want me to remind you?" He raised an eyebrow suggestively. "Some of the persuasional tactics you used were actually not all that bad." He smiled mischievously.

Ginny openly blushed. "No, that will not be necessary."

He shrugged and stood up straight. "Well, as long as you're sure. I'll be downstairs."

Ginny nodded and waited for him to close the door before letting loose a knowing grin that would have put her twin brothers to shame.

---

"I want this one!" Sebastian said for the nth time that morning.

"Not now Sebastian, it's still before lunch and we have the rest of Diagon Alley to cover."

"Dad, I'm hungry," Cadence chimed in.

Draco rolled his eyes and wondered what the hell was taking Ginny so long. As if she had answered his question, she came running out panting. "Sorry I took so long. The sales people didn't want to let me go for some reason." She shoved the bag into a larger bag to hide it from him. She had gotten an owl just after he left telling her that his Christmas present was ready and she had stared at it for a while before thanking the gods for small mercies, and the fact that her other self seemed to be much more organized than she would ever dream to be. _It must be him_, she thought as she looked sideways at him. _He's rubbed off on me._

"No problem, but now I have to make a little stop of my own. I have to buy a door apparently."

"A door? Whatever for?"

"To replace the one that a customer broke down when they attacked one of the workers who refused to let them in my office yesterday. Damn muggles think everything is replaceable."

"You are joking? What kind of customers do you have?" She then realised that she had no idea where he worked. He worked with muggles was another surprising thing.

"The kind that really wanted to talk to me about something, apparently. Sometimes I am glad for that roof, it's the only sanctuary I have."

She frowned, he spoke as if she was supposed to know what that meant. "Hmm," she settled with.

"I have to go there now and see just how bad it is and if I can repair it." He looked at her. "You don't mind do you?"

She shook her head. "No, not at all."

He nodded and picked up Cadence as Ginny followed suit with Sebastian. As she had no idea where they were going to apparate, she edged closer to him so that he was touching her and they both apparated together. She then appeared in what looked like a bright room with large panes of glass acting as every wall. She looked around at the lobby of the very extravagant looking hotel on the other side of the glass trying hard not to look too surprised. She stared at Draco who was in the process of holding open the door. The glass door that she would not have noticed was a door if she hadn't seen the round door knob that gave it away.

As she stepped out of the strange room, she noticed the glass was much darker on the other side compared to the clear glass she had just seen and to the left of her there was a long desk that could have put the Great hall's tables to shame. She followed him as he walked towards it and saw the disgruntled woman behind it who seemed to be refusing to smile – or just be happy in general. There was a very long pen in her hand which looked suspiciously like a wand if she didn't know any better.

"Grace, what have I told you about smiling?" Draco said as he stood at the large desk that spanned along the wall. He put Cadence to sit on it as he leaned over and searched the stationery cup in front of the woman. She hit his hand with the 'pen' and Ginny wasn't seeing things when she tapped the cup and small sparks emitted from it before the key Draco was searching for appeared.

_So she is a witch, which must mean that it's a mixed hotel._

The solemn looking witch watched her employer with mirth. "The day these muggles give me something to smile at I will do it, genuinely, Sir. With every ounce of magic in me, I will do it. Until then, I shall continue to fake it as it secures my job, Sir." She looked at the line and put on the fakest smile she could summon. "Welcome to The Precedence Hotel, how can I help you?" she said louder to the man behind them.

Draco laughed. "As long as it's understood. Keep up the good work." He turned to Ginny and kissed her. "I'll be back in a minute."

"Oh," she said in surprise, "okay then." She watched him walk away and stood at the side.

"Excuse me," she heard behind her. She turned to see a group of people watching her. "Are you in line?"

Ginny looked at the line behind her and gasped. "Oh, I'm sorry," she smiled politely. "No, I'm not." She looked at Grace and asked where she could go.

"There's a playroom in the back for the kids, you can go there."

"Well, could you move? We would like to check in," he said rudely.

Ginny raised an eyebrow and let Cadence sit back on the desktop. She continued to look at Grace who cocked an eyebrow as if to say _'I told you so.'_ "I beg your pardon?" she said incredulously letting Cadence go and turning back to him. She glared at the man causing him to stand back a little. As he did she got a thrill and felt something come over her, the same something that had come over her when she was making the speech, as if she dealt with this everyday. She lowered her voice to an intense shocked whisper. "What did you just say to me?" She put her hands on her hips feeling very much like her mother again. This time however, she did not take them down. "How _dare_ you speak to me like that?"

"Erm… sorry but you are holding back the line." She could tell he was still trying to keep up his manly demeanour. She did not, however, notice the bell boy running off to fetch the owner of the establishment.

Right now, Ginny didn't give a toss about the establishment. "I don't give a shit if I'm in your way to get a new _kidney_. If you want me to move all you have to say is, 'excuse me miss but could I get past,' or 'would you mind if I just handed this in?'" she said sweetly. "Not, 'move,'" she said harsher mimicking him from before. "Who the hell do you think you are?" She took her daughter's hand and lifted her to the ground and took her son's hand leading them behind the desk. "Grace, could you watch them for me please?" Grace stood and took the children's hands to lead them to the backroom where they normally went to play with the other children of the employees.

Ginny turned at the desk watching the man in contempt and took off her coat placing it at the back of Grace's chair. She then turned back to the man and stood staring at him. "I think you need an attitude adjustment. Now, welcome to The Precedence Hotel, how can I help you?" she smiled fiercely.

The man suddenly looked scared. "Um, Mum!" he called behind him. He didn't think it would take this much effort to sign into a hotel. Soon an older woman, who looked just like him, came to stand at the desk. "Sign in for me would you?"

"Why? Is there a problem?" The woman glanced warily from her son to Ginny and back again.

Ginny plastered her fake smile and made it even brighter. "Yes, ma'am there is. Your son is the rudest man I have ever met and believe me, in my profession, I have met a few of them." She then dropped the smile and glared at him full force. "He has no manners and cannot address a woman with respect to save his life." She was mildly aware of Grace returning and of drawing a bit of attention from the rest of the lobby. She leaned dangerously on the desk and glared at him thoroughly.

The woman turned to her son and eyed him closely. "What did you say to her? We win a pleasant stay and all you want to do is ruin it for the family?"

He shrugged helplessly. "I just asked her to move, I didn't mean it to upset her." He flinched when his mother hit him upside the head.

"I am sorry about him. He takes after his own genes, it has nothing to do with his parents, believe me."

"It's quite alright ma'am, just pay close attention to him in the future."

"I will. Now, we'd like to sign in please. We won a free stay here in a competition."

"Certainly."

---

The bell boy came to a halt at his employer's door. He tried to hold in his laughter. "Sir, I think you need to see this."

Draco turned around with an angry look on his face. The door to his office had been completely blown off the hinges and it had no hopes of salvation. "What is it?" he glared.

The bell boy shrank back a little. "It's Mrs. Malfoy sir. She's doing it again."

Draco rolled his eyes with a smile. This was the third time in a month. "If she keeps this up I will have no more customers. What did they do?"

"Apparently he told her to move. She's yelling at him now." He turned to follow his employer.

Draco ran the rest of the way to the lobby to see his wife leaning angrily across the desk and glaring at a man that must have been the one who had told her to 'move.' He crossed his arms leaning against a wall and smiled, she was behind the desk. She kept denying that she missed working there but he knew it wasn't true. She liked working with people, even the rude ones that got her upset. Reason being she could yell at them. The bell boy turned to him.

"Aren't you going to stop this?"

He scoffed. "Why, she knows what she's doing."

"She's going to drive them away you know."

"No, she's not. She's going to sign them in and give him hell while she does it. She use to work here, she knows what she's doing." He continued to watch the proceedings.

"I am sorry about him," he heard. "He takes after his own genes, it has nothing to do with his parents, believe me." The woman glared at her son.

Ginny slowly let go of the counter. She narrowed her eyes at the man. "It's quite alright ma'am, just pay close attention to him in the future. Many women wonder why there are no decent men in this world. I always said I'd ask one if I found them, I stole a decent one myself and I'm glad I did it or else I would have ended up with someone like this." She gestured to him for good measure.

"I know… and I will. Now, we'd like to sign in please." Ginny stared at the woman as she was given her muggle passport.

Ginny took it and hid her surprise very well. She turned to Grace who was watching her as if she were her best friend. "Certainly, Grace will take your name and details. Enjoy your stay. And you," she said pointing to the man who now stood behind his mother. "I'm watching you," she said approaching a harsh whisper with every word. "Mind your step." When he didn't answer his mother turned around and hit him again.

"Answer the girl."

"Erm… yeah – yes, of course." He closed his eyes in embarrassment as the others in the line behind him laughed.

Ginny nodded and turned to go into the back room where she saw her children playing. "You guys ready to go? I don't really want to be here right now. How about an ice-cream?"

They both smiled broadly and stood up to follow her outside. She turned to get her coat and laughed at Grace's smile. "Could you tell Draco that I'm taking them for ice-cream?" When Grace nodded she continued outside. As she passed the lobby, most of the other inhabitants wisely moved from her path and she exited with a child holding onto each hand.

Draco made his way to the desk passing the family that was currently checking in. He eyed the man that was rude to his wife and smiled wickedly at the bright shade of red on his face. "Where did she go?" he asked Grace who looked for once like she was smiling of her own accord.

"She took them for ice-cream." She turned to her boss. Draco could see the grin in her eyes as well as on her lips. "I really like her, she made my day," she laughed happily. "She should come back, my life here would be so much easier." She continued scribbling down details of the family's address.

"Are you the manager?" the man asked him quietly.

He eyed him callously without facing him. "I'm the owner," he corrected him as he looked at what Grace was writing. He didn't really want to acknowledge them.

The man gained some confidence. "You need to have a word with some of your staff Mr. It's not right to have employees that yell at just about any person they want if they're in a bad mood."

Draco turned to him. "And it's not right for you to address a woman with 'move,' instead of 'excuse me.' What's your point?" he said indifferently.

He stepped forward. "My point is, you should fire her for speaking to customers in such a way."

"Well," Draco replied mimicking his actions and stepping toward him. "Even if I could," he said with enthusiasm, "which I can't," he said feigning disappointment before his face grew solemn. "I wouldn't." He got a thrill when the man stepped back a pace.

"I - If you could? What do you mean?"

"I mean, she doesn't work here," he said monotonously. "Grace could you get me the address of that door place in London? I have a feeling I will need to buy a new one anyway." Grace nodded and began searching through the address book.

"So… she just yelled at me for no apparent reason?" Grace tapped Draco's shoulder to give him the slip of paper.

"No she had a very apparent reason," he said turning to her, "you were rude to her. I applaud her if anything. You should have more manners when addressing a lady." He read the address on the paper. "Isn't there another one that's closer?" He gave her back the slip and she looked through it again. Then she found another store a few streets away and wrote it down to give him.

The man waited for Draco to turn around. "She was no lady."

Draco looked up from the new address he was reading. "You'd think you would learn to watch your tongue."

"Why?"

He stepped forward again. "_She_ is my wife."

The man hissed as he was hit upside the head once more by his mother.

---

Ginny sat in the ice-cream parlour in silence wondering what the hell just happened in the hotel across the street. She didn't know what was wrong with her, if it was the atmosphere or what. She knew it felt exactly like when she was in the auditorium opening the connection. Perhaps she was channelling her other self, she didn't know, but she knew it felt good. Everything felt good these past few days and she noticed that she didn't want to leave as much as she did before. It was saddening and she found herself thinking up more and more ways of how she could stay. She had come up with few theories but they seemed like long shots anyway. She would like to know if there was a chance in them though and for once didn't think she'd mind running into Janos today.

"Mum, where are we staying this year for New Years?"

Ginny was reminded once again that she may not get a chance to see Christmas with them, seven days was up on Christmas day, the twenty-sixth and onwards would be impossible. She went quiet, she was enjoying herself and she only had two days left. "Um, I guess at home. I hope we go to the Burrow. We used to go every year when I was with-." She was about to say Harry but stopped even though they were waiting for the rest of the sentence.

"With what?" Cadence prompted. Ginny almost laughed, just like her father wanting to know everything about anything.

"With… child," she said with sudden inspiration.

"Which one? Me?" Cadence said.

"Er… yeah, sure. Why not." She continued spooning at her ice-cream.

"Having fun?" she heard behind her and turned at the familiar voice.

"Dad! Look, I got triple chocolate with chocolate…erm, chips I think they are. Muggles are chocolate lovers like us, see?" she took a large spoonful of chocolate ice-cream into her mouth.

"That's… very nice, Cadence." He took a seat beside Ginny and stole a spoon of her ice-cream. "Ginny, have you any idea why I just threw out an _entire_ family from my hotel?" He grimaced as he swallowed it.

Ginny frowned wondering why he was eating it if he didn't like it. "No. Why did you just throw out an _entire_ family from your hotel?" she smiled repeating. She had an idea that she knew the answer though.

"I just threw out an _entire_ family from my hotel because one particular man had no manners to anything female. After he was rude to you, he then insulted you after you left and proceeded to 'look,' at the Russian Ambassador's daughter's arse." He stopped as Cadence laughed. "The Magical Russian Ambassador's daughter. So before I had to deal with muggles finding out about the wizarding world in a not-so-gradual way, I had to throw them out and re-direct their competition winnings to another hotel. Isn't that nice?" he said feigning glee and plastering the fakest smile she had ever seen.

Ginny narrowed her eyes trying to figure out if this was a good thing or a bad thing. "I didn't mean to cause so much trouble for you. I honestly don't know what came over me." That was, at least, the truth. She had no idea where it had all come from, she just had an urge to yell at people. Perhaps he had rubbed off on her more than she thought.

"Hmm, well it was all for the good I suppose." He took another spoonful and then grimaced again as he swallowed.

"Dad?"

He turned. "Yes Sebastian."

"Where are we staying for New Years?" he asked ignoring what they were saying with the uncaring tone of a six year old. Even Ginny was interested in this answer.

Draco shrugged. "Home."

"Which one?"

"Well this year isn't a home year so… Christmas eve at Molly's then-."

"Mum?" Ginny said surprised. Had her family really accepted this? Besides her mother, that was obvious. Had Ron really let it go? From what she remembered, he'd rather kill her than see her with Malfoy.

Draco cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah…" he said slowly. "So?"

"And there are no fights?" she asked not believing what she was hearing. Her brother was one to hold grudges. Big time.

"Is that an order or a request?" he said smiling.

"It's a question."

"Well you were there last year and the year before, what do you think?"

"Refresh my memory."

"Well, three years ago, Weasley conspired with Potter to play a little trick on me. Of which you found out about I guess, though you never told me how you did it. You walked into the trap before I had a chance to and they were apologizing for it… actually they're still apologizing for it, so no, no more fighting. You told them, in that same tone you used in there," he said gesturing to the hotel across the road with his head, "that both sounded and looked like your mother by the way," he added pointedly, "if anything else was tried then you would never set foot in the house again and they relented." He ended as he took another spoonful and grimaced as he swallowed.

That was it for her. "Why are you eating it then?" she said as she tugged away the bowl.

"It's right there and very inviting, I can't help it."

"But you don't like it. If you don't like something don't bother with it-."

"No that doesn't always work-," he interrupted and stood up. "Come on let's go, I have to find a door." He gestured to the bowls on the table, "Take them with you."

"Why doesn't it always work?" she said as she followed him out.

"Well, if I followed that philosophy I would never have married _you_, would I? Now that would have been positively tragic because if I hadn't done that," he said lifting his son, "I would not have gotten the two most precious things I can ever own," he laughed at Sebastian giggling helplessly in his arms and turned to her. "Therefore would not be who I am. Do you see the problem?" he said with a questioning look.

Ginny smiled. "Totally, very tragic," she laughed.

---

For the second time that day Ginny found herself in her own store. Apparently the nearest place that sold doors was hers. They had spent half an hour just pointing and staring at various doors before finally settling on finding one.

"This is a big one, take this one!" Cadence said a little too loud.

"Cadence, keep your voice down." He took a look at the door she was pointing to. "And I am not buying a pink door."

Ginny laughed. "Why not, I think it's positively neutral."

"The day you buy a pink door for your office then, and only then, shall I think about considering it. Would you buy a pi-."

"Oh Merlin no," she said cutting him off.

"There you go, see?" They continued walking. She walked beside him with her head on his shoulder. "What about this one?" he said stopping.

Ginny raised her head from his shoulder and showed a disgusted look. "Draco, it's black. Big, black and totally masculine," she said as if it was obvious why he shouldn't buy it.

"Oh, then it's perfect." He turned to the front counter. "Excuse me!" he yelled and beckoned the girl behind it toward them.

"Draco," she said pulling down his hand. "You cannot buy a big, black, masculine door."

He frowned. "Why not?"

"What if you have a female customer that's come to complain about a male member of staff?"

"So?"

"Yes?" the sales assistant said. She put her wand behind her ear. And then looked to her employer and smiled. "Afternoon Mrs. Malfoy, is there something you'd like to order?"

Ginny let go of him and faced the girl looking at her name tag. "No, Laura, but I would like your opinion. Children," she said looking down. "Cover your ears." They nodded and did as they were told. "Can you hear me?" They shook their heads. She nodded. "Good." She turned back to the female assistant. "If you were being harassed by a male member of staff and wanted to complain to your employer about it, how would you be feeling?"

She looked down at the two children with their hands over their ears. "Pretty pissed," she relented.

Ginny smiled. "I thought so. Now, if you were to go your employer and he had a black, chauvinistic and sexist, big masculine-soaked door like this," she said gesturing to the door hanging on the fake frame, "how would it make you feel about him?"

Once again the woman looked down at the children. "Severely pissed."

Ginny turned to Draco. "Pissed enough to make it explode?" she said smiling and looking at her husband. Draco rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, pretty much," the girl shrugged.

Ginny inclined her head. "Thank you, you've been most helpful." The girl left to go back to the front desk. Ginny turned to her husband. "See the problem?" she smiled.

He sighed. "Well what door would you choose?"

She scrutinized them all with a keen eye. Eventually she gasped and practically ran to a solid oak door with the knots showing in the grain. "This one. It's perfect."

He looked at it and wondered why she would pick it. With all of her weird antics it must have some sort of importance. "And why, pray tell, is it so perfect?" He crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow readying himself for the, sure to be, strange but insightful reason.

"Look at the grain, how it's solid oak but it's light in some areas. The darker lines show a sturdy but protective layer amongst them, can you see it?" She looked at him as she ran her hand over the light and dark areas. "Like it's telling a story and reassuring you that it'll keep you safe." She bent down and smiled at Sebastian as he came to run a hand over it too. Cadence stood by her father and rolled her eyes. "Especially from caffeine deprived customers who want nothing more than to blow it up." She took her son's hand and pressed it against a knot in the wood running his finger along the lines of the grain to another one. Sebastian giggled as her hair fell over his head and tickled his ear. "You see how the knots link everything together?" Draco nodded. "You can use them to hold any number of charms and it will be spread to all the lines of the grain. This way, wards will be stronger in the office as a whole and not just the door." She finally stood up and faced him. "It's perfect," she concluded.

Draco stood in a mixture of silence, admiration and shock. "I can see why this place is so successful with insight like that. Is this how you sell the most mundane things here to muggles? I'm sure they'd buy it in a second. You never ever fail to surprise me, you know that?"

"Nah," she said waving a hand casually and linked it again with his as he walked toward the front desk, "give me a few years and you'll see."

He smiled as he walked with her to order the door. "You told me that eight years ago and I still can't see any end to it. I think there're a few more surprises in you I haven't seen."

"Really?" she said leaning on the desk. Laura looked up from writing the receipt and smiled.

"Definitely. You are a bottomless pit of surprises, Ginny. I for one just hope you don't run out of them too soon."

"Why not?"

"It's one of the main reasons I love you so much, every time a new one surfaces I fall in love with you all – over – again," he said kissing her soundly. He laughed at her sudden broad grin and the broad grin of every other woman by the desk. Once again Cadence and her father rolled their eyes.

---

Ginny threw herself down on the sofa in the living room soon accompanied by Cadence and Sebastian exhaling a heavy drawn out breath before collapsing in a fit of giggles.

"Oh, I'm knackered," Ginny said as she kicked off her shoes.

Cadence leaned on her as she crossed her legs. "Me too."

"Me three," Sebastian said lying down with his head on the arm of the chair.

When Draco came into the room he rolled his eyes. "Oh come on. A few hours of walking around and you're all tired? Please."

The three heads on the couch shot up and glared at the man before them. "A few hours?" they all said together. When he left the room shortly after they relaxed again on the chair.

"A few hours," Ginny repeated laughing. "We left at nine." She turned to the clock above the fireplace and laughed. "It's now seven thirty. Ten hours is hardly a few." A comfortable and tired silence followed. Ginny turned to Sebastian and found him peacefully sleeping with his feet on her lap, and then turned to Cadence who had buried her head in her shoulder. She smiled to herself and let her head rest against the back of the chair and closed her eyes.

"Mum," Cadence said with her head on her mother's shoulder. Ginny jumped and raised her head.

"Mmm – yes?" she said suddenly wiping her face. It must have been the fire, it was lovely and warm and sleep inducing.

"Are you going to leave?"

"What?" she said suddenly very, very awake.

"On Saturday, you left without remembering I was here. Dad sent me by Grandma. I didn't want to go but he made me anyway. I don't want you to do that again, it frightened me."

The guilt Ginny had felt yesterday came back ten fold. "Sweetie, I'm sorry. Mum was having a _really_ bad day. I didn't mean to upset you."

"What happened?"

"I er… I took a potion that made me forget who I was."

"Why did you do that?"

"I guess because I wanted to be someone else. Looking around me and seeing you and Astie and my life as it is now, I have no idea why I would want anything else. I never want to give this up."

Cadence shifted so she was kneeling and watching her mother. She wiped the tears from her face. "Not ever?"

Ginny followed suit and wiped her own. She shook her head. "Not ever," she repeated and welcomed the hug that came her way with a loud sob.

---

Ginny stepped outside in the spacious garden behind the house and wrapped the dressing robe around her tighter. She shivered involuntarily and watched the breaths of steam rolling out of her mouth as she thought about what to do.

"It's not going to work, you know. You don't have a choice."

Ginny spun around to face the voice she knew well. He was lying on a thick branch of a tree nearby. It came as a surprise as she hadn't seen him in a while. "What, no job today?" she joked.

He turned to her and sat up. "Well, I have been watching you. Among the others I have, you are definitely the most entertaining."

"Entertaining, huh? At least I'm good for something, right?" She shifted on the spot focusing on a patch of grass beneath her feet. "Erm, Janos, I wanted to ask you-."

"No." She jumped as he walked around her suddenly. She looked up at the tree, she hadn't heard him apparate.

She looked at him. "You don't even know what I'm going to ask."

He smirked and she narrowed her eyes at him. "Yes I do." He threw himself down on one of the chairs in the garden. He crossed his legs and stared at her. "You're going to ask the same thing the others ask. The same thing I warned you about and the same thing I told you not to ask for because you – already – know – the answer." He tilted his head. "Don't you? Or else you wouldn't feel so nervous asking it."

"Then why did you bring me here?" She gestured around her. "Why did you put me into this… this prison?"

"Oh so it's a prison again?"

"It's happiness. It's everything I ever wanted. But I can't have it, not really. Having this is heaven, having you take it away in two days time will be worse than my life ever was before."

"It's better to have loved and lost than-."

"The only people who say that have obviously never tried it, Janos." She sighed and joined him on a chair next to him. She wiped her face. "I don't want to go back," she said stiffly.

"And you don't have a choice," he said unaffected by her tone.

She glared at him and his impassive emotions to her. "I'm not going back."

He looked at her taking in her angry tone but stood his ground, this wasn't the first angry one he had come across. "And you don't have a choice," he said pointedly.

She stood up. "Yes I do."

He sighed and followed suit. "Yes," he said watching her face changed as he said it, "you did. Once." He continued to stare at her, even when she looked away sadly knowing exactly what he meant. "You blew it, remember?" Her head snapped to him and he saw the tears shimmering on her face.

"I hate you," she said before running back inside.

He nodded before settling back on the chair. "Stage three." He looked up at the sky and shook his head. This one was going to be hard.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

In Seven Days

**Words of Wisdom**

**Day Five**

**Wednesday 23rd December 2009**

The sun permeated through the frosted window which wasn't altogether strange for British weather. It didn't make outside any warmer but then it didn't stop from blinding him either.

Draco woke up shielding himself from the intense beam of light that penetrated his bedroom window. He turned over, stretching a hand to pull his wife closer but froze when he couldn't feel anything. He opened his eyes to stare at the empty half of disarrayed bed sheets and crumpled pillows. He sat up and looked around fully awake. She was nowhere to be seen. He got up and walked out onto the corridor glancing over the banister as he descended them. The house was silent. And if the house was silent it only meant that the children weren't there either. It was his day off and for the first time in history it was hers too but she wasn't anywhere that he checked.

He went to sit on the sofa staring into the fire. His forehead creased in thought. This was new.

Very new.

---

"Sebastian, don't jump on that!" Lavender called as she ran to the boy who was jumping on the display cabinet. She had no idea why he was up there or how he had gotten there in the first place but she had to get him off, and fast.

"Aunt Lavender?" Cadence said from behind her.

"Yes sweetie?" she answered not looking around.

"Is this supposed to come off so easily?" she said sweetly.

Lavender frowned and turned with Sebastian under her left arm. She almost dropped him when she saw one of the sleeves of the new dresses that had come in yesterday. "Ginny!" she yelled making half the population of the store turn to face her. She stood there for a second expecting Ginny to pop out of nowhere.

When there was no answer she took both of their hands and practically pulled them toward Ginny's office. She was not equipped for this. No way was Ron getting anywhere near her if this was the product. No way at all. Lavender opened the door without knocking and closed it behind her.

Ginny looked up from her desk. Really this wasn't so hard. She had found it quite easy after the fourth or fifth invoice. All she had to do was make sure the figures were correct and sign it to send it out. Wasn't such a bad job after all.

"Yes Lavender?" she said doing her best to sound indifferent and eyeing both of her children with a knowing smile from the wicked grins she received.

"How do you do it? They're terrors!" she said letting go of their hands. As she did they ran around the desk to stand by their mother.

Ginny remained silent as they came around the desk. Cadence leaned on the dark wood as Sebastian took residence as close to Ginny as possible without being on her. They both turned to look at Lavender with as angelic faces as they could muster. Ginny held her laughter and stroked the hair on her son's head. "They aren't so bad when you get to know them," she said looking at Lavender. "Here." She picked up the two stacks of invoices. "I've checked them and signed them so just send them away." As she leaned forward Sebastian moved to Cadence to get out of the way.

Lavender took them and looked at them. "Ginny, I didn't know you had so much time to do these, we weren't expecting you in today so we didn't bother owling and calling anyone. Isn't today your day off?"

"It is?" she said perplexed. She didn't know it at all. "Yes well, I just thought I should clear everything off my desk before Christmas. Tomorrow by mum right?"

Suddenly, Lavender sighed in a guilty way. "Yeah, Ron has been pestering me to go shopping for her present. He has no idea what to get her and was wondering if you could… perhaps give him a family discount?" she said hopefully.

"I am not a -." She did a double take. "No wait I am a department store. Oh, alright then. Tell him to come by this afternoon. If I'm not here, tell him not to go too wild."

"You going home then?" she asked.

"I will, eventually," she said smiling and waited for Lavender to leave before looking at both of the small children on her left. "Alright," she said them watching each of them evenly. "What have you been doing to her?"

Cadence shrugged and removed her left hand from behind her back holding up the torn sleeve. "It came off," she said without a shred of remorse. She saw the raised eyebrow of her mother and added, "I didn't pull it, I swear. Dad says if they come off that easily it's not worth buying," she continued as if the statement justified her actions.

Ginny cocked an eyebrow. "He does, does he?"

Sebastian nodded. "Yeah, he says expensive things don't fall apart."

"Correction. I said things with _quality_ don't fall apart," she heard from the door.

Ginny looked up. "What are you doing here?" she asked with a surprised smile.

"Oh no," he said quickly as if she were asking the wrong question, "no, no." He leaned on the door frame and watched her, it looked like he was having a bad morning. "The better question is, what are _you_ doing here?" He stepped into the room. "_You_ took the day off. _You_ ordered _me_ to take today off, which _I_ did, even though I had to cancel three meetings. _You_ said you weren't going to go to work for three days out of the month: today, tomorrow and Christmas," he listed off on his fingers. "I was curious to what – with all its urgency – could wake you _so_," he stressed, "early that you would come here, _willingly_, when you could be at home. With me. _In_ _bed_," he added pointedly.

"I had some things to finish."

"Yes…" he trailed and nodded. "I saw the practical tree you just gave Brown – Weasley -." He shut his eyes in annoyance. "Oh, I don't even know what to call them anymore, they spread like the plague." He rubbed his temples as if he had a headache but she wasn't paying attention to that.

She put her hands on the table. "Excuse me? That's my family."

He put on a smile. "And a very nice one it is too. You know what I meant, they're everywhere." He sighed heavily. Ginny then had a feeling he was saying all this for a reason. "I woke up this morning. You were gone and so were these two. Then I get a fire call from your mother asking where you are. There was me putting two and two together and guessing you probably had to get something for her but_ then_ she tells me you aren't there. I guessed where else you could be. As I was leaving, I get three-." He paused and looked at her pointedly. "Yes _three_ – count them –," he said holding up three fingers, "three consecutive calls from Potter, Weasley _and_ Granger, asking where you are and if I could get you. I would have told them to stuff it but somehow they were by your mother too. So," he said wrapping it up, "I am officially here to pick you up, take them with me," he said pointing at the terrors that stood next to her. He paused briefly as he noticed a torn shiny sleeve in Cadence's hand but shook it off, "and _personally_ see to it that you are at the burrow in… oh twenty minutes ago." He crossed his arms as if waiting for an apology to the great disturbance in his meant-to-be quiet morning.

Ginny stood up and walked over to him, put one hand on each side of his face and brought down his head to kiss him on his forehead and smiled. "Thank you. And I'm sorry, it wasn't meant to turn out like this."

"Did I mention that I was in my boxers when they called?"

She went to get her coat. "Oh dear. Well, you can take them home if you want, I can make it there by myself."

"Uh, uh," he said shaking his head. "My exact _orders_ were to take you there myself. Don't ask me why, I haven't a clue." He picked up Sebastian and walked out side with Cadence trailing after him.

---

The house smelled strong of delicious food. It was filled everywhere. Ginny stood up in her old kitchen as if now noticing it for the first time. It seemed… different to how she remembered it. Was it, larger? She frowned and looked around walking from one end to the other and holding out her arms. It was, it had to be. There was no way it was this big when she lived here. She swung her arms around to measure it from memory.

She hadn't even noticed the attention she was getting from her husband, her children and half the rest of the house.

"Ginny, what in Merlin's name are you doing?" Ron asked her.

She stopped abruptly and jumped at the voice. Ron. She smiled, she hadn't seen him in a while. She turned around to see him and a big grin plastered itself on her face. "Ron!" she squeezed him tightly. "I haven't seen you in forever!" She let go to meet a puzzled face. The others just rolled their eyes and went about their business, Ginny acting strange was now becoming common knowledge.

He put down the grocery bags he was holding. "Um, Ginny, I was at Diagon Crossing's opening. You only saw me three days ago."

_He was there? Oh yeah…_ "But we didn't talk. I haven't spoken to you in a long time."

He cocked an eyebrow. "We went to dinner last week. Ginny, are you feeling okay?" He then folded his arms and looked at her sternly. "Is this some ploy to get out of working with mum again? I am not covering for you this time, if you want out just tell her." He moved over to the kitchen table and put the groceries down. "I don't think I could live with baking cookies two consecutive years in a row."

"No, I'm just – cookies?" She shook it off. "I'm happy to see you is all. I've missed you."

"In the space of three days? Sure, Ginny." He looked at his watch. "What time does your store close?"

"Erm…" She had no idea.

"Well, I'll just go and meet Lavender then. And when I get back you will tell me why you were trying to fly in the kitchen a minute ago."

Ginny frowned. "Oh! Erm, no I was just checking something. The kitchen – it seems… bigger."

He paused for a second. "Well, it should. You enlarged it two years ago because it was too small to fit all the pieces of furniture into the house."

"Furniture?"

"Yeah," he said slowly. "You bought mum a whole new suite for her birthday, she was thrilled but didn't want to perform any spells on it in case they were damaged so, because through the kitchen is the only route with a straight line to the living room, you enlarged everything including the doors and the aisles and stuff to get them through. When mum saw it she was delighted by all the room and such. She kept it that way. However, because the house is kept up by so many spells as it is, it kinda started to fall apart. Malfoy," he said with a little distaste, "sent mum and dad on some holiday somewhere and while they were gone we all chipped in to rebuild the place because none of use wanted him to contribute to our home, no offense, he thought so too. Sentimental value and all." He stopped taking things out of the bag and looked at her. "But what am I telling you this for, you already know." He laughed before leaving the room. "I'll see you later." Then he apparated.

Ginny stood in the kitchen blinking at what she just heard. _We rebuilt the burrow?_ She then remembered that they had apparated to the house so she hadn't had a chance to see the outside yet._ I bought mum furniture? _ And the bigger question. "Draco sent them on a holiday?" she said out loud.

"I sent who on holiday?" she heard behind her. She turned.

"You sent my parents on holiday?" she said still shocked.

He narrowed his eyes and looked to the ceiling. "Not recently. Not to my knowledge anyway. Why?"

She smiled. "Nothing, it's nothing. Just, thank you." She kissed him as Fred walked unseen into the kitchen and then instantly wished he hadn't. He was accompanied by Molly carrying a stack of plates to match the bowls in his arms and complaining about men who can't set tables with the good crockery.

"Hey, hey, hey! None of that in here. We have to eat in here, take it outside!"

"Fred! Let them alone, they're just enjoying themselves."

"Mum, I am all for enjoyment, but not here in my place of sanctuary."

She stopped and watched him in that incredulous way with her mouth open. "Since when has my kitchen been you're sanctuary?"

"Since here is the only place I can get free home cooked meals."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh for goodness sake. Here change these, the good plates are in the cupboard," she said handing him the stack of plates when he had put down the bowls. "Ginny, dear, could you help me please?" Molly said as she went to wash her hands.

"And so it begins," Draco said into her ear causing her to laugh. "You do know this means no contact for about three hours?"

Ginny sighed and rolled her eyes before going to help her mum.

---

The night sky was covered in clouds making the garden seem unbearably black. The only light was coming from the house but it did nothing for the scenery she knew would be spectacular if only the moon was there to show it to her. She smiled briefly as she stared into the darkness remembering the nights spent outside with her family watching the trees shining in the moonlight and hearing the faint splashed of water from the lake nearby. She laughed quietly, she hadn't remembered that in years.

"Still planning your getaway?"

This time, Ginny didn't even turn around. "Go away, Janos. I do not want to speak with you right now, or any other time for that matter."

"Well, I'm sorry for that because you have to listen to me this time or else circumstances you will not like will surely take effect which will make you even angrier."

She sighed heavily with a huff and turned to him. She was grateful he only seemed to appear in gardens when she was at home. She didn't know how she would explain this to her family, let alone her husband. "What? What do you want now, here to tell me your snipping off a few days to teach me a lesson because right now that's the only thing that will make me listen to a word you have to say."

"No, that's not what I came here to say. You seem to have a bit of a temper on you these past few days, and I'm not sure the news I have for you is good to be given to you in this state. I was planning on giving you something to possibly apologise for the way I handled things yesterday. It was not gentleman-like and I apologise for it."

"Oh." She felt slightly guilty.

"Anyway. As a token of it I was going to tell you that I was giving you some days extra but apparently that seems to have flown out the window with your biting remarks. So, good day." With that, he was gone.

Ginny stood, watching the previously occupied space. Shock was not the word to describe it. Guilty and stupid were probably the words for it. She mentally kicked herself.

"Dammit!" she said hitting her head repeatedly on the arm of the bench. "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" She sighed and let it fall back ignoring the pain she had now created in her forehead. "Shit. Bugger it!"

"Hey, calm down, sis. What's wrong?" Ron said as he came outside with a mug of hot chocolate for both of them.

"I opened my big mouth, that's what's wrong." She took the steaming mug and rested it beside her.

"Oh, Weasley temper eh? Yeah, it'll be the death of all of us, sadly." He looked up at the sky. The clouds were parting now and the moon and dozens of stars could be seen now. "Don't worry though, I'm sure whatever you've cocked up will fix itself, somehow. Things have a way of doing that when you think it's all gone to shit."

Ginny narrowed her eyes wondering who this man was and what he had done with her brother. "You, giving tips on life? I've heard and seen it all now."

"I know ironic, huh?" he smiled. "Seriously though, it'll be alright. You'll see." He sat with her for a few more moments looking at the moon. "Words to live by?" he offered.

She smiled. "Shoot."

"I'll do one better actually. Words for me to part by and therefore make me look and sound insightful to your problems." He stood up and made to go inside, Ginny followed him with her eyes. As he reached the door he turned to her. "_Everything_ has a loop hole."

She watched him go inside with a sad smile. She had just blown the chance of getting a few extra days here by being herself. _Oh well,_ she thought to herself. _I'll just have to find some other way to stay here that's all._ She followed her brother inside intent on finding the solution.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

In Seven Days

**Figuring It Out**

**Day Six**

**Thursday 24th December 2009**

By request of her mother, Ginny, Draco and their two children apparated to her family's home three hours early on Christmas Eve. Preparations were to be done and the table was to be set. The roast, which had been pre-cooked the day before, was to be finished off. The decorations were to be finished, presents were to be laid out and some late gifts were to wrap. Frankly, Ginny had no idea how this was accomplished year after year. But it was.

Three and a half hours later, dinner was served.

Ginny sat next to Draco and her children on either side of them and opposite Fred and George who, the more she looked at them, seemed to be watching her husband's plate way too much. When their mother had called them, she turned to Draco.

"Give me your plate."

"What?" he said with a frown.

"Give me your plate, now," she said hurrying him along with a gesture of her hand, "while they're gone." He obliged her and she took it only to switch it when Fred's, no doubt the mastermind of the two. She put his plate in place of her own and gave hers to her husband.

Draco watched this display of Platerobics with a slight smile of confusion. "And what in Merlin's name was that?" he said looking at her.

She smiled wickedly. "You'll see."

He watched the wicked grin, which, in all honesty, bridged on maniacal, and suddenly understood. "Well, in case I can't stop laughing afterwards, thank you." He kissed her cheek.

"Hey, hey! What did I say yesterday?" Fred said as he and his brother came back to the table.

Molly eyed him. "Fred, sit down and eat." He shut up and sat down next to his brother.

All Ginny had to do right now was wait. She didn't have to wait long though, these were _her_ brothers after all, as questions kept being shot in Draco's direction form both of the twins before her.

"_I love Christmas, Malfoy?"_

"_Mum's specialty, you know. Goes all out every year."_

"_You haven't touched your greens!"_

"_Bad Malfoy."_

"_So, what about those carrots, eh?"_

Some time through the meal George stopped the insinuations long enough to come right out and ask, "How's the meal Malfoy? Has mum outdone herself yet again?" as he chewed on his own food. Next door to him Fred was downing his like he had never had anything so delicious.

Draco noticed it as well as Ginny had. Neither of them had stopped looking at his plate. "Well, your reflection here certainly seems to think so. Why don't you ask him?"

George raised an eyebrow. "'Cause I'm asking you mate, how are the peas?"

Fred stopped eating suddenly and a roaring noise sounded in the room which seemed to come from his stomach and echoed down into the pits of his bowels. George slowly turned his head to his brother, his eyes opened wide at the green colour Fred was sporting on his face.

"Fred? Bro – you alright?"

"I don't know," Ginny said as she put down her napkin and stood up. "He looks a bit ill don't you think George? Perhaps it was something he _ate, _what you think Fred?" she said bending down for him to catch her eye. "Did you eat something bad? Something you couldn't possibly think would end up on your plate as it started off on my _husbands?_" She turned and picked up Sebastian on her right. "Come on Draco, we're leaving." Draco was watching the whole thing with a – _really _– suppressed smile but stood up anyway taking Cadence on his left with him.

"Ginny-," Molly protested.

"No mum." She put up a free hand before bending her knees to catch her brother's eye again. "They know what I said the last time this happened. It seems they are deaf as well as stupid." She stood up again. "Good night everyone. Merry Christmas. Happy new year and all that." She turned and left the kitchen to get her coat.

"Here," Draco said helping her put it on.

She shoved her arms in the coat harshly and then stopped and turned to him. "You don't think I was too harsh do you?"

"I think that you said what you had to say. Whether it was harsh or not is something different entirely. But thank you."

She shook her head. "Way to avoid the question, Draco," she said rolling her eyes and going outside.

"Well your family has never been a very good topic to discuss with me, you know that. I just prefer to stay out of this. I cannot help it if your brothers hate me. It's their choice. Personally, I only care about what you think so really it has nothing to do with me if they don't listen to you. That's your field."

She smiled warmly. "Really? You care what I think?"

"Er, yeah I do," he said obviously.

"Well, you're welcome." She apparated.

He stared at the now empty space and followed shortly after with Cadence.

---

"I'm cutting you off," she heard behind her. Ginny turned at the voice knowing instantly who it was and confronted him with a disdainful glare.

"What are you doing here? Can't you leave me in peace for my few remaining hours with my family?"

"Well, it's hardly a few. It's about nine o'clock now so I would say you have around fifty-one hours left. Give or take a few of course."

Ginny scoffed before turning back around. "Oh, of course," she mimicked before collapsing onto the sofa again. She faced the fire refusing to talk to him.

"But, as I said before, I am cutting you off."

This caught her attention. "What do you mean?"

He looked at her pointedly. "What do you think it means?"

"_Ginny? Are you coming down, we want to open the gifts now!"_ she heard echoing from downstairs

"_Yeah mum, move it!"_ said a slightly younger voice.

Ginny sighed. "I'm coming, hold on a minute!" she yelled back.

"_Any longer and we'll be a year older mum, hurry up!"_

"I don't know anything when it comes to you, why don't you tell me?"

"Well, seeing as you were so damn aggressive about leaving a little while back, and seeing as you hate the fact you have to leave in two days, I have taken them away and you can leave now."

"What?"

"You can-."

"No, I heard you. How dare you? You give me this, tell me I have the shortest time possible and now you want to take it away from me earlier? Where's your damn compassion?"

"I must have left it in my other trousers, sorry."

"No, you're not sorry. People like you aren't sorry. People like you get off on seeing misery, you don't care about anyone."

"I don't care about anyone? You have no idea who I am. My job is to care about _everyone_. It's who I am. It's what I do. I bring hope – and joy – and insight to people who were too blind – or stupid – or _care-less _to do it for themselves the first time." He stepped closer to her. "So before you start spitting out accusations, _Ginny_, I suggest you think before you speak." He calmed down and stepped back. "I must say though, you arguing like this is not helping your case. I'm still sending you back."

"Why?"

"Because you are getting out of hand. I have had threats before. I have been strangled, pushed off ledges, stabbed even but you –. You have done nothing besides say things and mean them. At least with my other… subjects, I knew that they were just making empty threats. You though, you mean it and I don't want you to stay here if you are going to be looking for ways to avoid going back instead of just accepting that there is no way."

"Can I just say something?"

"No," he said shaking his head.

She frowned. "You don't even know what I'm going to say."

"Yes I do. Ginevra, there are numerous stages when it comes to this and I have seen them all. Stage one: Confusion, not knowing where to go or what to do because of all the stress. Stage two: Anger, not wanting to stay because it's all a waste of time. Stage three: Anger again, just this time it's because you want to stay. Even empty threats are made harm comes to me via wands, balconies, knives, frying pans-."

"Frying pans?"

"Oh yeah, it's happened. Anything to stop them from going back. Stage four: Bribery, you all try to negotiate. It doesn't work. Nothing works. This is just the way it is."

"I wasn't going to negotiate."

"You weren't?" he said in a knowing way that almost made her sick.

"Just… please let me stay for Christmas. Please."

"It was you who asked me why I gave this to you in the first place. The way you said it made me think you wanted to just go and get it over with. You're saying that you still want to stay? Even though it's going to be ten times harder?"

"Yes I am. Just one more day. Please, and I promise I won't look for ways out, I promise."

"Ginevra," he said staring at her as if he were peering over a pair of spectacles, "you're negotiating."

She shrugged indifferently. "I'm desperate."

---

"What took you so long?" Cadence asked as she played idly with a bow. Ginny knew she couldn't wait to rip a hole through the wrapping and get what was underneath.

"I was combing my hair." They all simultaneously looked up.

"It looks the same," Cadence said with a frown.

"You'll understand in a few years, don't worry." Cadence watched her with an 'are you crazy?' look before looking back down at her present.

"Erm, hold on. It's still Christmas Eve. Shouldn't we, at least, be waiting until midnight?"

"I gave them an ultimatum," Draco said answering her question. "Either now, one present and the rest tomorrow, or wait until midnight." He let Cadence continue.

"I don't think I'll guess what they chose." She watched the paper go flying as Cadence opened the box her present was in. Her eyes opened wide as she took out the crystal clear light blue statuette of a ballerina who stood in a pirouette on what looked like a silver stand with a winder at the side.

"It's – it's," Cadence stuttered looking at her present with her mouth open. "How did you – I saw it in the store but how did you -." She got onto her knees and stumbled over to them hugging them in turn. "Thank you." She sat back down and twisted the winder until it couldn't turn anymore. It started playing a tune as the ballerina turned around and around. She first did the five basic positions of ballet before extending a leg backward in a straight line into an arabesque, and then extended it forward with a bent knee into an attitude. She turned again into the pirouette, and then fouetté before ending with the fifth position as the song came to a close. Cadence sat in silence, as did her company before she looked up at them again. "I love it. Thank you." She went forward a little to grab the paper and searched through it until she looked up at Ginny. "Thanks mum, I really love it."

"Me?" she said grabbing the paper. "Oh, yes of course, me." She laughed stupidly. "Ahem. You're welcome sweetie."

Draco heaved a sigh. "Sebastian's turn." They all looked at the little boy and nearly laughed when they found him asleep, his hand dangling over the edge of the chair next to his father and dead to the world. "Okay, not Sebastian's turn. What about you?"

"Me?" Ginny said for the second time that night.

"Yeah, go ahead and pick one, just let me take him upstairs." He picked up his son and walked to the stairs to ascend them.

"Mum," Cadence said once he was gone.

"Mmm? Yes?" she answered.

"Open mine." The girl handed her a small awkwardly wrapped box from deep inside the base of the tree. It shook a little as she brought it out but when she left it, it went still again. Ginny took it from the girl and began to tear the paper away. She caught sight of what lay underneath and gasped. It was their family portrait. Except this time it was smaller and it didn't move. "Now you can take us everywhere we're not."

Ginny looked up at the little girl in front of her. She saw the tear stains from when she had opened her present and Ginny had the right mind to think that she looked the same. She laughed a little before looking back down at the picture. "Why isn't it moving?" she asked her.

"So you know for sure."

"Know what for sure?" she said with a slight frown.

The little girl smiled. "So you know for sure that we aren't going anywhere."

Ginny laughed again and pulled her into a bone crushing hug which was returned with every inch of love she had. When they broke apart they were laughing stupidly and sniffing through the tears that were pouring down.

"You know, at this rate I won't have any liquid left in my body." They laughed again.

"Mum?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't think you were harsh on Uncle Fred. He's always doing that to dad and he never says sorry, or means it when you tell him to. I would have done worse actually."

"Like what?"

"Wait for him to throw up all over the table and then ask him to say sorry. He would be so humiliated he would have to mean it. That way everyone would know not to mess with you again."

"Divine humiliation huh? Yeah I could do that."

"Well, there's always next year, mum." They laughed at each other again. "I'm going to bed."

"You're not staying for your dad's present?"

"Nah, you're probably just gonna give him what you gave him for his birthday anyway. I don't want to be around for that."

"And what's that?"

"Mum, please. Even though I understand it, don't make me say it out loud." She shuddered, "Eew," and then ran up the stairs to her room.

After a while of waiting for him Ginny dug under the tree for the present she had bought for him. Well not her – the other her – well, it was still her. She had even opened it to see what it was and she had sat there staring at it wondering just how in love with him she was. She found the large shape and took it out. She remembered having a hard time hiding it from him in the first place and having to shrink it in order to get it away from his suspicious eyes. She knew he had gone through most of the things in the bag which was why she had put it in her pocket before she left the store and his other present in the bag.

She walked up stairs with it in her arms. It wasn't as heavy as she recalled but she still had a bit of a rough patch on the stairs as she tried to see them and almost slipped trying to see over and under the box. She made it though. She walked along the corridor and opened the door to her room. It was dark, as dark as rooms go when there are no lights and its night.

"Draco? Are you in here?" she said into the darkness.

"Um, where else could I possibly be?"

"Well, it's a big house. Why didn't you come back downstairs?"

"I did, but there was a big bonding session going on, I didn't want to intrude."

"Oh. Well, I brought you your present."

"Is it the same one you got me for my birthday?"

"Um, no I don't think so." She had put two and two together and guessed just what it was by the time she heard the disappointed tone in his voice.

"Oh."

"Don't worry, this is better. I hope." She brought it over and lit a candle after setting it down on the bed. Draco sat up and sighed wiping the sleep out of his eyes.

"What is it? And why didn't I see this in the bag with my other presents?"

"I knew you were searching through them. You have no idea what the word surprise means, do you?"

"Not in the family I come from, surprises aren't exactly welcomed." He began to read the card. "May it help to protect you in times of need?" He frowned and looked at her. "In times of need? What does that mean?"

She just smiled. "Just open it." She too had had that same expression when she read the card. When she opened it and seen it though, it had all clicked. She remembered him telling the story of a family vacation his family had taken to a place called Angel falls in south-eastern Venezuela, on the Rio Churún when they were in school. It was the only one he cared to remember.

He ripped off the paper to find a clear case with a model moving around inside. It was illuminated as if the sun was shining and there were people inside it. They were laughing and running about screaming in glee. An older man was splashing at a woman who could only be his wife while a young boy, a very familiar young boy just canon-balled into the water, just in front of the waterfall that fell into the water behind them, to splash them both.

Ginny could see the expression in Draco's face moving from a great interest to profound realisation. She knew it because she had worn it too. As she had seen the happy faces, especially considering who they belonged to, she had realised what it was and what exactly the card meant.

It was Draco's happy memory.

"Oh my…" He swallowed hard and looked at his wife. "Ginny, how – when – how did you do this?" She could hear the lump in his throat as he tried to find the words to say. He was watching the people screaming with laughter. "I don't – I don't know what to say." He looked even closer at them. It was exactly how he remembered it. "I can't – can I? I just want to -." She didn't know what he was saying but he was pointing at the case as if he wanted to remove it.

"Yeah, go ahead, nothing will happen."

He carefully took off the glass case, the light remained where it was and he put a finger into the water. It was warm, just as it had been that day. Everything was captured, even the part where his father had tried to take off the top half of his mother's bathing suit and ran out of the water. She was screaming 'no!' while laughing at the top of her lungs but fighting back all the same. Four year old Draco was sitting near the bank watching them and no doubt keeping the memory safe somewhere deep inside where he would one day tell it to his girlfriend in school of the only time he had seen his parents happy when he was four years old on a vacation to Venezuela.

It had never happened again. He looked up at his wife after putting the case down.

"I love you, with everything I know."

"Good," she smiled as he pulled her to him. Without another word, without another thought, Draco leaned forward and kissed her intensely. When they parted he leaned his head against hers. She felt completely weightless, and had she not been lying on the bed, she suspected she may have fallen to the ground.

"We should get some sleep, Christmas is never easy here."

"Yeah, I guess so. Especially with what I did by my parent's tonight, tomorrow is going to be a long day of kissing butt."

"At least you only have to kiss Molly's, the rest of the day will be spent as you being the receiver of said butt kissing."

"True. True." She curled up beside him comfortably and lazily tossed a leg over his before resting her head by his chest and closing her eyes. Tomorrow was a brand new day; sleep confirmed it and it brought her another day close to leaving her life behind.

Suddenly Ginny stopped mid-yawn. Sleep. It did confirm a new day, refreshed and new. If she didn't sleep, there would be no new day. There would be no saying goodbye. She wouldn't have to leave. She smiled; perhaps it wasn't so bad after all.

As she drifted off, she heard a tapping noise, just once and then again, and then again. She sat up on one arm and looked over to the window. A small stone hit her window. She frowned and stood up to walk toward it. When she opened it to yell at whoever was throwing stones she got a stone in her mouth. She spat it back out into the garden and was pleased to who it had landed on. Janos Elliot.

"Get down here. Right now."

"Wh-," she started and then remembered that her husband was right next to her. "What for?" she hissed.

"Come down here."

She huffed and turned around ready to slam the window shut but thought twice about it. She threw on her robe and went downstairs to find him standing with his arms crossed and glaring at her.

"What do you want now? You remind me I only have one more day and now you want to what? Tell me it's all over again?"

"Exactly."

She caught herself. "What?"

"I told you that if I even got the suspicion that you were trying to find a way to stay I would send you packing."

"But I wasn't-."

"What do you call that then, up there?"

"Can you read minds or something?"

"Something."

"Look, I didn't mean to think of it. It just came to me. Come to think of it, I might just try it."

"Ginevra. You are going back."

"No I'm not." She turned around to go back to the house. She then stopped and turned back to him not at all surprised to see him still standing there, usually he would have just disappeared but she had the slight feeling he knew she would come back. He always seemed to know. "Why are you so anxious anyway?"

"I don't know what you mean."

That did it for her. "You keep on telling me that I can't stay, it's impossible to stay. You tell me others have tried but always end up failing." She sat down. "If it's impossible, what's wrong with trying if you know I'll just fail?"

"I have told you how it works. You only get to stay for the time you requested. You learn what the effects of your choices are. That's all. In the end it returns to normal."

"Yes, you've told me that before. I want to know why you're getting so upset if you know it's impossible. Why are you freaking out over the fact that I mean it when I say I will find a way to stay. Why you are turning up at Merlin knows what time when you hear a thought I have and feel threatened enough to-." She looked up at him. She mentally kicked herself for not realising it earlier.

Sleep.

"That's it isn't it? It's sleep. If you don't sleep, the day doesn't turn."

"I don't know, it's never been tried before." He glared at her. "No one has ever tried it before."

"No one has ever thought of this before. They obviously didn't want to stay badly enough. I just have to stay awake."

He laughed emptily and stared as he rounded her. When he came back to being in front of her she eyed him suspiciously.

"What?" she said a little apprehensively. The way he was looking at her was not comforting.

"You can't stay awake forever, Ginny." With that said, he disappeared.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

In Seven Days

**Stage Six**

**Friday 25th December 2009**

"What is he?" Ginny said as she sat down at the bar she had come to both know and hate.

The barman turned around to face the owner of the voice that spoke with such disdain. He looked into the eyes of the woman who had confronted him a little under a week ago.

"What is who?" he said paying ignorant. He knew full well what she was talking about.

"Janos Elliot, that's who, what is he?" she asked again.

"He's… different."

She scoffed. "Yeah, no shit."

"Have you asked him this yourself?" he asked her.

"You actually think he'll answer me?"

He shrugged. "He could do, have you tried?"

She said softly, "No."

He nodded and picked up a random glass and began wiping it clean. "You know, I have met a lot of you people-."

"You people?" she said eyeing him wiping out the glass.

"Yeah, this is his retreat apparently. Loads of people who need help, loads of people to help. It's what he's about. There are the select few that he favours and he helps all the way-."

"All the way?"

"Yeah, like – say you have a guy somewhere that you turned down a few years ago and then you get into this relationship with someone else and they turn out to be… abusive or something, I don't know. If he thinks you're worthy of it he'll help you out."

"What do you mean if he feels you're worthy?"

"Erm, if he feels you really need help, like real special attention. He'll hook you up."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Ginny got up to leave but then something held her back. "Wait, how do you know all this? When I came here the other day, you said you didn't even remember me."

He smiled. "I have my reasons for remembering certain things."

"Oh yeah? How?"

"Well, I'm here ain't I?" he smiled. "Someone's got to tell them where to go."

She nodded with a warm smile and left the bar.

---

Fred followed Ginny into the living room. "Ginny we said sorry, what more can we do?"

Ginny spun at him as she went to get her coat. "You can leave me alone. And trust me to make my own decisions."

George piped up then. "We do trust you, we even trust him to an extent, we just don't like him."

Draco stood up. "'_Him_,' is still in the room."

They both looked at him and Fred frowned. "'_Him_,' should shut his mouth."

Ginny breathed out in exasperation. "And _we _should leave, come on." She put on her coat and threw her scarf around her neck.

"Ginny, come on, they didn't mean anything by it." Ginny turned around. It was Harry who had spoken. A small distance behind, Hermione stood watching them. Ginny stared at the two of them and couldn't help but remember how they had fooled her in her other life and how she had let herself be fooled even though, somewhere in the back of her mind, she had always known. Standing there, however, and watching them made her soften a little. She had not gone through that here and they had always been her friends. She turned to Draco and smiled to herself as she watched him. She couldn't blame them. After all, you can't help who you love.

"What they have done, Harry, is only prove to me that they cannot let go of something so incredibly stupid it speaks multitudes of their own warped personalities. Until they do finally grow up to match the age of their shoe sizes I will think about coming back here for family gatherings." She looked at the two terrors she had the displeasure of calling her brothers. "He is a part of the family now. Until you accept that I am not coming back." She backed way from them but stared at them even as she said, "Happy New years, mum." She finally turned away from them and left the house.

"That was… different," Draco said beside her.

"Well, now they have to kiss mum's arse too." She smiled up at him. "Can we go somewhere? I don't want to go home yet." She slipped her arms around his waist inside of his coat.

Draco nodded as he rested his chin on her head. He then looked up to the sky. The sun was setting. He then smiled as he thought of the perfect place. He lowered his head to whisper in her ear.

"Hold on." She nodded and squeezed.

---

When Ginny opened her eyes she saw the most beautiful sunset she had ever seen in her life. The sky was a mixture of colours. Even though the sun was bright on the orange horizon the air was still crisp and cold. She didn't let go of Draco, even when they sat down on the ground.

It was then that she realised she was on a roof of a rather tall building. She looked over at her husband. "Where are we?" she asked.

"You don't recognise it?" he asked. "Well I suppose you haven't been up here in a while. It's the roof of the hotel, remember?" he said.

Ginny didn't remember, like she didn't remember so many things. And then suddenly something occurred to her. _Sometimes I am glad for that roof, it's the only sanctuary I have._ He had said that not three days ago and she had wondered what on earth he was talking about. She nodded to him as he seemed to be waiting for an answer. "Of course I do," she said and wiggled herself closer.

"Good, I would have to worry then. I don't think I could handle you not remembering where our second child was conceived," he said.

Ginny stopped and watched him strangely. "What – oh – yes of course I couldn't forget that, what do you think I am?"

"I think you are a number of things but none of them will get me a smile so I'll keep them to myself."

She hit him playfully on the arm and then they just sat down until the sky became dark and the sun had disappeared completely. A crescent moon shone behind them, smiling down at them. In that moment, like so many others, she did not want to leave. But she had to face it.

This was her last sunset, her last crescent moon, her last few hours with him.

"We need to get back. The kids probably want to tear into their other presents if they haven't already done that and stuck them back together. Ginny? Ginny are you crying, what's wrong?"

"I – I don't want to go," she said quietly.

He moved so he could see her face as she had burrowed it into his neck. "Go? Go where?" he asked.

Ginny sighed. He wouldn't believe her even if she did tell him. "Away for the New Year. Can we stay?"

He smiled. "You had me worried there. I suppose we could stay. There's really no reason to go away to a nice warm country when we could freeze to death here. I guess it could be arranged," he said.

Ginny smiled. "Thank you."

---

The living room was flooded with wrapping paper and various toys, ornaments and clothes, both knitted and bought. They hung on the edges of chairs, sat around the tree and lay haphazardly close to the fire. Ginny looked at the clock. It was half past eleven. She sighed into her hot cup of chocolate and wiped away a salty tear. She wasn't supposed to get so close to them. She was just supposed to be there for seven days and then leave with no worries.

But who was she kidding?

Of course she would get involved. She was the proud owner of a wonderful husband, two beautiful children, her very own _successful_ business and a life of happiness. How could someone not get pulled into that? She stared into the fire and saw some of the newly bought toys close to the flames. She took out her wand and moved them away before they caught fire or melted.

She wished she had another day, she wished she hadn't gotten angry at Janos to make him think twice about giving them to her. She wished she didn't have to leave this sanctuary of bliss.

She wished she had chosen him instead.

---

"You've been down here a very long time. Aren't you coming upstairs?" she heard behind her. She jumped out of shock and turned around on the arm chair. When she did, she smiled.

"I was, but now there's no reason to," she said and heard him chuckle.

He came into the room and sat down on the three seater. "Wow, what a mess," he said regarding the living room and its current state. "Is this why you're taking so long, you're contemplating whether or not to clean? You do know we have a house elf, right?"

"We do?" she said genuinely but he seemed to hear it as sarcasm.

"Ha, ha, Ginny." He scrubbed his face with his hands to get rid of the tiredness. "So, I'm lying in bed asleep and wake up suddenly and you're not there. Explanation. You cannot still be drinking that chocolate, you made it," he said looking up at the clock. It was quarter to two, "over four hours ago."

Ginny looked down at the cup. It was true; the cup of hot liquid was now stone cold liquid and the heat she was feeling was from the part of the cup she was holding.

She sighed. "I don't want to go just yet," she said talking about something different completely.

"So, you'll just stay up all night then?" Draco said to her.

She thought for second. "Yeah, if I have to."

He stood up. Ginny followed this spontaneous movement with her eyes and frowned when he took her cup out of her hands and left it on the table in front of her. He offered a hand. "You don't have to sleep when you're in a bed. Come on, I'll stay awake with you," he said.

She shook her head. If she went upstairs, she would fall asleep. She knew it and she couldn't handle the thought. "I'm too tired to stand. I'll just stay here."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Right then," he said and took his hand away.

Ginny smiled at him but had to suppress a scream when he suddenly scooped her up and started walking toward the stairs. "Draco, I don't want to go upstairs."

"Why?"

"I don't want to fall asleep."

He stopped on the top step. "Why? What's wrong with falling asleep?" he said as if her statement was the most irrational thing he had ever heard.

"I'll miss this too much. I don't want the day to end. I don't want to forget it all."

He put her down but didn't let her go. He was a little surprised when he felt her sobbing against him. "Ginny, it's okay, you won't forget anything, I promise." He held her head in his hands and kissed her. She kept her eyes closed when he pulled away but opened them when he said. "You believe me, right?"

She knew he was lying, even though he thought he was telling the truth but she nodded anyway wanting to rid the feeling in her gut. She wanted the sense of security. She wanted to hear that it would all be okay. "Yeah, I do," she said and responded instantly when he kissed her again.

The way he was holding her, she felt so calm and warm and… safe losing herself in his arms once more. She knew she wouldn't feel that again. She returned every inch of feeling he gave to her. She pressed closer to him and he felt the necklace he had given her for Christmas under her shirt. His arms wrapped around her waist tightly and he used his grip to pick her up. Ginny wrapped her legs around his waist and continued to kiss him as he walked to their bedroom. He laid her down on their bed and ran a hand through her hair. He could feel her shiver under his touch.

She watched him recording every movement of his face, every reaction of his body against hers. Her head went back on a pillow as he kissed his way down her neck undoing the tie to her robe and reached for the hem of her slip. She moaned quietly as it was raised to her waist with precision and above her head expertly then tossed to one side. Her legs wrapped around his waist as his mouth found hers again. She held on to his body feeling every movement he made with her and felt his hot breath on her neck. With each pulse, she met him matching his rhythm and looked up at him taking in the flush that covered most of his body.

She lay next to him now staring at him staring at her. She could only see the faint outline of his eyes when they blinked but she knew he hadn't taken his eyes off her. She smiled sadly with only the fact that soon she would not be there running through her mind. When she heard him yawn she closed her eyes welcoming the inevitable when he suddenly moved closer to her and she tucked her head under his chin. She felt his fingers running up and down her back and closed her eyes at the contact.

"Don't fall asleep," he said. "You don't want to forget anything."

Ginny, not being able to hold it in anymore began to cry but kept her voice reasonably well. "No, I'll never fall asleep," she said. "I'm just resting my eyes a little." She sniffed.

He opened his eyes at that and saw her outline in the dark but couldn't see her tears. He smiled running a hand through her hair to get it off her face. He felt the coolness of the air when it hit his hand now wet with tears but he decided not to push her. He closed his eyes sleepily and continued to stroke his fingers up and down her back. "Don't forget me," he whispered.

The steady rise and fall of his chest under her head soothed her and she closed her eyes hearing the thudding beat of his heart. His heart that belonged to her. Her face then screwed up as she cried but she couldn't let him know she was crying.

"Never," she said softly.

**Saturday December 26th 2009**

When she awoke, she knew instantly that she had eventually fallen asleep and that it was over. She didn't want to open her eyes. She knew that if she did there would be no home in the outskirts of London. There would be no smiles to say good morning to, be they Draco's or Cadence's or Sebastian's. She squeezed her eyes tighter feeling the burn of hot tears running down the sides of her face to her ears. Her lips were trembling as she opened her eyes to the sunlight in her own bedroom.

Her own bedroom. She sobbed loudly and covered her eyes turning on her side to cry into her pillow. Gone. It was all gone. No more house, no more family.

No more happiness. It was all gone.

She spent a good while lying there and crying, just getting it all off her chest before she heard a noise. She turned over and sniffed and realised it was the door bell. She pushed back the covers and crawled out of the bed wiping her eyes. She walked to the front door and opened it. It was Harry and Hermione.

"Ginny, I've been trying to see you all week. You won't return my owls or anything."

Ginny hadn't heard a word he had said. She just smiled at him and turned away leaving the door open. "Hey, Harry." She walked into the living room and sat down on one of the chairs bringing a cushion in front of her and rested her chin on it.

They both came in and sat down. Hermione was the first to talk. "Ginny, we can explain if you give us the chance. You've been gone all week no one has seen you. We thought you had run off somewhere, Molly's having fits trying to figure out where you could have gone.

She frowned at them trying to understand what they were going on about. "What do you mean?" she asked genuinely confused.

"Ginny, where have you been?" Harry asked her.

She sat back and sighed. "Heaven. I've been in heaven."

"What?"

She looked at them with a genuine smile that caught them by surprise. It's not everyday that you piss off the youngest Weasley and get away with it. They patiently waited for her to burst but she never did. She just kept watching them with a warm and knowing smile. She remembered seeing them at the Burrow the day before, but that life was gone, and this was yet another reminder of it all. "You make a very cute couple. Has anyone ever told you that?" she said surveying them sitting together.

Shocked was a mild way of putting their reaction. They sat in silence just watching her. "Ginny," Harry said finally breaking the silence. "Are-."

"Am I alright? Yes I'm perfect. A little sad perhaps but I'll be okay. If you don't mind though, I'd like to be on my own for a bit, would you excuse me?" She stood up and waited for them to get the hint. They got it in her alternate life, apparently it branched here too because they rose almost immediately and made for the door.

"So, you're okay then, with this I mean." Hermione looked at her hopefully.

Ginny's smile grew. "I'm happy for you, Hermione. Take care of yourselves." She shut the door behind them and made her way back to her bed. She wasn't at all fit to welcome anyone but she had surprised even herself when she had been so calm. She had remembered to breathe, just as Draco and Janos had always been reminding her to do. It was easy from there, especially when she realised that after a week of seeing them together and happy, she couldn't see them as anything else but close friends.

As soon as her head hit the pillow, the door bell rang again. She sighed heavily and walked back to the front door.

"Hermione I swear I'm ecstatic for you-." She stared out the front door to see Janos Elliot watching her with a sparkling glint in his eye.

"Well nice to know it but it doesn't help your mood does it? Nice to see you've finally learned to breathe in confrontations." Her smile didn't keep this time, she broke down.

She held her head in her hands and leaned against the frame before feeling a hug come her way. She welcomed it and cried on his shoulder as he shut the door.

"What's wrong?"

"My whole life has changed." He smiled at the familiar words.

"For better or worse?"

"I-."

"Never mind, it doesn't matter. You fell in love didn't you?" She nodded on his shoulder and grabbed handfuls of his coat in her hands. It was cold from outside and a little wet from the snow, just like Draco's after he came home from work. She started up again. "Like you said you wouldn't. You fell in love with what could have been."

"Can't you do anything?" she said sobbing.

"Anything like what?"

"Why can't you send me back?" she pleaded.

"I just can't. The only thing you can do to help yourself is to accept that things have changed and try to adapt. Neither of us can do anything until you do. If you want me to help I can, I can help you adapt, it's what I'm here for but I can't do anything until you go to the next step first."

"Do you have family, Janos?" she asked.

He shook his head. "Not anymore."

"So you don't get Christmas presents or anything?" she said almost incredulous looking up at him.

He lifted one corner of his mouth. "No, I'd be too busy to open them anyway."

"Do you want anything?" He shook his head. Ginny sighed and returned to her predicament. "I should have chosen him. Now there's nothing. I have nothing."

He shook his head. "How do you have nothing?"

She gestured toward the door. "Harry's gone with Hermione; I don't even have a dysfunctional relationship. I have no husband anymore, I have no children. I have no perfect life. I have no happiness. I made the wrong choice and I can't ever go back."

"Who says?" She pulled away from him and looked him in the eye. He smiled knowingly.

---

She walked into the familiar lobby of the Hotel in Wizarding London. The Christmas decorations spilled every inch of the room and the doorways. She smiled in awe despite her mood and followed Janos towards the desk. Ginny stood and smiled at the receptionist who only looked at her with that forced smile she knew she was only sporting because it was liable she'd get fired if she didn't. Ginny almost laughed at it.

"Good Morning, welcome to The Precedence Hotel, how can I help you?" she smiled broadly.

"Good Morning Grace, is Mr. Malfoy in?"

"Mr. Malfoy?" Ginny froze, he did work here right? Even if she hadn't chosen him he must work here, this had nothing to do with her. She turned to Janos who just shrugged which didn't do much to help at all.

"Yes?" she tried in a less than confident tone this time.

"Is there something wrong?" Grace asked. "Is the service not to your liking?"

"Yes, everything is fine."

"Well is there any other reason to why you'd want to speak to the owner?" Ginny sighed in relief at her words. He did work here after all. She moved aside when Janos came to the desk in front of her.

"Is there any reason why you are preventing us from our right to speak to the manager?" he said.

Grace surveyed him and gave up eventually knowing that she had no reason to ask. "Very well. But please, do not blow up the door. He had a hard time finding a replacement." She raised her wand.

Ginny pulled down Grace's hand just as she was about to say the incantation. "No!" Ginny cried quickly before she could say anything. She ignored the stares of the passers-by.

The woman frowned. "I beg your pardon?"

Ginny blanched. Somehow, from the reaction she was getting, she realized that this was an _all_ magic hotel. Which would make sense really, as Draco wouldn't touch a muggle without the proper encouragement. "No, I want to go to his office," she said recovering.

"You cannot go to his office, Madam."

"And why not? I happen to know that any client or employee has a reserved right to enforce a meeting with the owner at any time."

"Yes, Ma'am, but that is only if you have a complaint."

Ginny thought hard. "Well… I have a complaint."

Grace looked at her. "You do?"

Janos looked at her. "You do?" he asked.

Ginny looked at both of them. "Yes, I do. But I am not going to tell you as it does not concern you. I want to speak to the owner."

Grace sighed heavily and looked at the line behind Ginny and Janos. "Very well. Rory!" she called and a bellboy popped out of nowhere. Ginny still hadn't gotten used to that yet.

"Whatup!" he said happily.

"Take these customers to the owner's office. They have a complaint that they wish to disclose _only_ to him," she drawled. She shooed them out of the way with her pencil and looked around them. "Next please." Ginny watched her reinforce her smile and almost laughed. "Good Morning and welcome to The Precedence Hotel, how may I help you today?" Ginny shook her head as she was led away.

She smiled when she didn't see the door she had chosen four days ago but the black, chauvinistic and sexist, big masculine-soaked door he would have chosen if she hadn't been there. Rory knocked on the door curtly and waited for the invitation. There was none. He frowned and knocked again before cautiously opening the door. There was nobody there.

"Oh, well erm… As you can see he's not here. You may want to try a later time today?" he said courteously whilst ushering them both back into the main lobby.

Ginny relented and made her way back to the lobby without a word. As she reached there she noticed how it had become packed with a lot of customers. She imagined the stress he must have been going through with all these wizards and witches to go through. Her head snapped up.

"Stress," she said quietly looking around.

"What?" Janos asked from her side.

"Stress, he goes upstairs when he's stressed. To the roof, it calms him down." She looked around for an elevator. There was none. They were in Wizarding London, he hadn't branched into muggle territory because she hadn't been there to influence it. She smiled when she realised just how much impact she would have had. "How do I get to the roof?"

Janos felt lost for words. "Erm… I don't know apparate?"

She shook her head. "No, I can't, I'm a customer."

"Oh, well erm…" He thought for a while. Then he looked at her and clicked his fingers. "Fly!" he said.

"What?"

"Fly. You have a broom right, or you can just use your wand, Wingardium Leviosa is all you'll need."

She crossed her arms. "You have got to be joking."

Janos shrugged. "It's your only option if you want to get him alone."

---

Ginny nodded resolutely. "I'm ready." As she took out her wand he held back her arm.

Janos looked up to the roof which seemed miles away. He then glanced at Ginny and bit his lip. He had never gone this far to help others like he was with her. He had to be sure he was doing the right thing. "This is your last chance to think about this," he said.

Ginny frowned. "Think about what?" she said as she envisioned herself flying Merlin only knew how many feet into the air.

He looked around as if he were trying to avoid the response. "I'm just saying. Eight years is a long time, Ginevra."

She looked to the ground and then craned her head up to see the roof from the back of the building. No, she had to do this. "I just need to see him, even if he won't forgive me for it."

He sighed. "That's not what I'm saying, Ginevra." She looked at him. "Like I said, eight years is a long time and a person like him is never alone for long." He stared at her waiting for a response.

Ginny didn't know what to say. She had never thought about it that way. Of course a person like him would have somebody by now. She couldn't have expected him to wait for her. That was both physically and mentally impossible for him. She looked up once again and sighed. Even with all those new thoughts plaguing her mind she had made up her mind.

She had to know.

"I don't care," she said still looking up. When she looked down again and at Janos he was stunned at the resoluteness of her stare. "I have to find out. I won't know unless I do."

He broke out into a grin. "I had hoped you'd say that," he said and watched as she performed the levitation charm on herself. As she soared past the windows on the east side of the hotel, he watched her with a smile on his face. He knew she was special from the beginning.

"Stage five," he said laughing.

---

She knew he would be on the west side, to watch the sun set. It was his favourite time of day. As she landed, she got her grounding and stood still for a minute to rid her of the giddiness she had when her feet hit the ground. She looked around before seeing him standing to the very edge of the building. She still thought he was crazy to do that.

She made sure to make at least a little noise so that, if he didn't know she was there, he would at least get a heads up and won't be too startled to jump and begin a twenty story fall. The gravel on the roof crunched heavily as she trod on them hard. She caught his slight flinch in her direction and knew that he was aware of her presence. She stopped about a metre or so away from him and waited for him to speak. She had to gather what she wanted to say. He, after all, was the one she didn't choose in the beginning and it was not very likely that he would have forgiven her after all this.

He wasn't Harry.

"Is there something wrong downstairs?" he said over his shoulder.

"Yes your lobby is way too small to fit every member of the Wizarding society in it." She crossed her arms to get rid of the snow.

He turned around at the voice that he didn't recognize. When he set his eyes on her he frowned wondering what a client was doing on the roof of the hotel and how on earth they had gotten there. He looked around to see if any of his employees were there.

"There's no one else here, I wanted us to be alone."

"Do I know you? How did you know to find me here?"

"This is where you come when you get stressed. The one place that no one would think to look for you, you also love the sunset and the perfect picture it paints on a canvas sky. This is the perfect place to view perfection isn't it?"

He looked at her in mild shock that she could know all these intimate details of his thoughts. "How did you know that?" he said in a bare whisper.

She walked closer to him with her arms still crossed and stood so they were millimetres apart. "There are a lot of things I know about you, Draco." She stepped even closer to him and dropped her arms to her side. "I know that you love toast with a passion bordering on fetish, I know that you would eat something you don't like just because it's right there and very inviting. I know you have a weak spot for children even though you rave with a fiery passion that you can't stand them. I know that when I look at you I can fall in love with you ten times over just by seeing the way you look at me." She looked down. "And even though I don't know whether or not you want me or if you've thought about me at all over the past twelve years. I want you to know that I have thought about you almost everyday since that morning on the train and that I regret ever having let you go."

Draco watched her backtracking through his mind. His eyes then became clear and his forehead smoothed as he looked up at her. "Ginny?"

She nodded. "Yes, it's me." She took a step toward him. "Would you like to go for something to drink? I know this great café around the corner."

---

Janos sat in the lobby of the hotel and watched with a smile as Ginny walked through it followed by Draco. He narrowed his eyes at them wondering where they could be going. "Well, one way to find out." He stood up and walked slowly after them and saw them go turn right as they left through the doors. "Well, at least he wasn't throwing her out personally," he said to himself. He saw them turn yet another corner and he instantly knew they were heading to Diagon Alley. He decided to let them go and turned back heading toward a pub of his own.

He entered the familiar bar and sat down waiting for his friend to serve him.

"Back to prey on more innocent people are we?" he heard from his side. He turned to see his friend and smiled.

"Not behind the bar tonight, William?" William nodded.

"Yes, but one of my waitresses called in sick." He sat down next to him as there was no one else calling for him at the moment. "What brings you here tonight, no one else to 'help?'" he said with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh yes, yes I do have people to help but none of them need me right now. I brought back three of them today but none of them have been giving me as much trouble as this last one."

"Oh? Who's that then?"

"You should remember her, red hair, was in here a week ago. Brown suede jacket."

William thought with a frown for a while. "Oh!" he said with audible enthusiasm. "The one with the multiple moods? Yeah, I remember her. How's it going then? You found her I see."

"Oh yeah, I found her. In a grocery store, no less. She had kids and everything, William." He sighed as William got up to go back behind the bar. He smiled in gratitude when he was a handed a drink. "She was so much happier than I have ever seen anyone before. She even found a way to stay."

William stopped. "Really?" he said with valid curiosity. "Never heard of that before."

"That's because it's never happened before."

"So, she really wanted to stay?"

"Yes, I suppose she did. You know she asked me if I wanted anything for Christmas."

He raised his eyebrows in a, 'well…' sort of way. "Well…" he said eventually. "What does your rule book say about this?"

"I don't know." He sat in silence for a while. "I didn't ask for this you know. I would give it all up in a heartbeat if I could but I can't. It's a damn curse, I know it. They say it's all good and that I'll get use to it but you can't. There is just so much pain. It's a wonder I'm still normal." He was well aware of the smile and stare of his friend and he added, "Well as normal as I can be anyway." William nodded satisfied with this correction and leaned over the bar to listen to the rest of his rambling. Janos sighed. "I've just –," he began again. "I've never seen someone so in love with… with happiness. It was a rude awakening."

"Hmm." He took a towel and wiped down the counter from the countless circular puddles of water and alcohol. "So…" he trailed.

Janos watched him. "Yeah, so."

---

"You look different to when I last saw you, though," Draco said as he opened the door to the café for them to leave.

Ginny tightened her coat around her as she walked out into the streets of London. She didn't now she could blush in such cold weather but apparently she could, especially when she remembered the last time she had seen him. Luckily, the red on her cheeks was seen as a product of the cold weather so she thanked her lucky stars. "You do too," she said truthfully. "In a good way, that is," she added.

He laughed. She loved his laugh. "Well I'd hope so. Hate to think after so many years I look terrible." He continued to smile. They walked down Diagon Alley in silence and passed through the leaky cauldron to the lamp lit streets of London outside. Ginny turned to him and smiled. "It was nice to see you again, Draco."

He nodded. "Pleasure was mine."

They stood now in an embarrassing silence. Ginny shivered to the cold and looked around in an attempt to escape it. Draco just watched her. "You never did answer my question."

Ginny looked at him. "What question was that?" she said knowing full well what he was talking about. The topic had bridged on her relationships after she had blissfully found out he was, miraculously, single and she had told him that she had just gotten out of a bad relationship. He had then asked her who it was and she had expertly changed the subject.

"If you had the chance, would you go back and change it?" he said quite softly.

Ginny frowned slightly. When had he asked her that? No wonder she hadn't answered it, she never even heard it. She looked at him and remembered every moment of the past week. She remembered the Christmas dinner, the hotel and the last sunset and even the fact that her mum seemed to like him more than she liked anyone else. One thing she couldn't shake, however, was when she was relentlessly staring at him in the café and couldn't hold back the emotions she had felt when all she could see was her children.

"In a heartbeat," she said and began walking down the street to find a good alleyway for her to apparate from.

She reached home and turned on the light to her entrance hall as she dropped her keys on the table she came in contact with. She sniffed as she took off her jacket putting it on the coat hanger she had standing in a corner. She walked straight to her kitchen and immediately fired a spell to heat the kettle. She then sat down on a chair to her kitchen table and let her head fall against it. She winced momentarily before the doorbell rang and her head shot up to look at the front door over the divider of cupboards that made her entrance hall. She looked at her clock and hoped it wasn't Harry or Hermione or any other member of her family.

Only when she reached the door did she remember Janos. She supposed she could handle him right now if he had decided to stop by. When she opened the door however, her face stared blankly, mainly out of shock.

It was Draco.

"Hey," he said.

Ginny didn't say anything, she only broke out of her stance when she heard the kettle boil. She put up a finger stuttering out, "S – stay right – just stay right there." She ran around the cupboards to the stove and switched it off with a quick spell and then came back around to see Draco still there.

_So, I didn't imagine it then?_

"Can I come in?" he asked her.

"How – did you find me?" she said not registering his question.

"I erm, I followed you to the alleyway you apparated from. You were already gone though but there was this – this guy, I didn't know his name but he gave me this address. So here I am. So… can I come in?"

"Oh my god – yes, of course you can," she said in a slight hysterical laughter. "Please, come in." He walked in and she closed the door behind him. "You can sit down – if – if you want to, I don't mind," she said nervously.

He smiled and took off his jacket before sitting down. She walked behind him to sit down in the armchair opposite. Then she shared probably the most awkward moment of her life with him as they both just sat in silence with nothing to say. She then let her eyes wander to the kitchen. "Oh," she said, "do you want something to dri-."

"Yes, yes I would," he said quickly glad for the awkward moment to pass.

Ginny got up and made a break for the kitchen cursing under her breath for feeling so embarrassed when she had just spent a week married to him – the other him. She spent a few minutes stirring hot cups of chocolate before carrying them back over to the chairs.

"So," she said.

He sat forward on the sofa. "Yeah, I – I wanted to say something to you."

Her eyes opened in surprise. "Oh? Okay then." She sat forward too ready to hear it.

"When you left just now outside the cauldron, I got this feeling. I don't know what it was but the look you gave me made me not able to forget it. I stood there for a while watching you walk away. The look in your eyes, like you could see right through me, like – I don't know how to explain it, like you knew me even though I haven't seen you in twelve years. It took me by surprise but it felt so familiar, like we've been close recently since then." He looked genuinely confused.

Ginny smiled to herself. _You have no idea._

He looked up at her. "See? Like that. You looked at me like that, like you knew something I didn't. But instead of feeling really strange it seems like something I'm just use to." He watched her. "Why is that?"

Ginny shrugged. "I don't know."

He sat back and they drank in silence. The evening drew on and the cups emptied. Ginny often wondered during this time if they were going for a record of spontaneous and lengthy silences but found out soon that she would rather him just be there in front of her. It gave her hope. A hope she had abandoned last night. She blushed slightly thinking about it and looked away from him when he suddenly looked up as if he could hear her thoughts. It was strange thinking those things when he had absolutely no idea that they had occurred. It was as if she had obliviated him and the situation just stood in the room like a naked man that everyone saw but decided to ignore.

"What?" he said.

She shook her head and stood up to put her cup in the kitchen. She stopped by him to take his and continued on her way. It was only when she had turned back did she notice that he had followed her in. She stopped at the counter and just looked at him. She was instantly reminded of her days in her other life. Stuck in the kitchen with no answers and no explanations.

"I think it's time for me to go."

"Oh," she said softly. "Okay, well I'll erm – I'll see you out then."

He nodded and grabbed his coat as she opened the front door to the stairs. He stopped in the doorway and looked down at her. "Thank you for the drink and the talk, Ginny."

She smiled. "Yeah, anytime."

He leaned down to kiss her cheek but from past experiences Ginny suddenly turned her head and caught his mouth with her own. They paused for a moment, eyes open and staring before she continued kissing him and he dropped his coat on the floor to hold her tightly. He pressed her against the back of the kitchen cupboards kissing her intently and kicked the door shut with his leg. He tried lifting her up on the counter but the cupboard on top restricted her from any comfort. She grabbed hold of his shirt. "Bedroom, this way," she said as she led him toward it with one hand around his neck and the other hand feeling her way blindly toward the bedroom. He followed her opening the doorknob and once again using his leg to close it.

---

Outside Janos stood looking up at the light of Ginny's home. He looked to his left suddenly when he saw someone coming toward him. He leaned against a lamppost and sighed as William walked up to him.

"You asked me to meet you here?"

"Yeah."

He looked around. "Why?"

Janos looked up. "She lives here."

"Oh, so have you decided to leave her alone now?"

"Yeah. I just want to deliver a Christmas present." He took out a red envelope from his inside pocket and pushed it through the letter box. "Come on, I'll buy you a nice Christmas dinner."

"It's Boxing Day, and it's nearly eleven," William said.

"Don't worry about that, I have a feeling we can find something to feast on. This is London after all."

---

Ginny's eyes opened the next morning. She tried to move but found it hard to as there was a person holding her tightly. She could feel his fingertips running up and down her back and she smiled closing her eyes, sighing to the way he was still the same – and yet not. But he was still there. She moved closer to him, if that were possible and instantly felt him stir. She kept her eyes closed pretending she was asleep and felt him look down at her. She could sense the smile and in turn couldn't help the smile from escaping her either.

She heard him laugh. "I knew you weren't asleep."

She looked up at him and grinned. "You stayed."

He held her tighter. "I told you I would. Perhaps one day you will tell me why you were afraid to fall asleep."

Ginny then stopped smiling and frowned. She looked up at him to see his eyes closed again. When she didn't lie back down he opened them. "What? What's wrong?"

She narrowed her eyes at him in confusion. "Say that – say that again?" she said.

"I just said maybe one day you'll tell me why you didn't want to fall asleep." He looked at her in the same way she had seen him look at her so many times before and it filled her with suspicion. She sat up and looked around. Instantly her mouth dropped and she froze. That beautiful pastel blue colour filled her eyes, the wardrobe, the bathroom to the right paved with multi-shaded blue tiles. Ginny felt tears running down her cheeks.

She jumped when someone knocked on the door and her gaze snapped to the oak door of the bedroom.

"Come in," she heard Draco say.

Ginny's heart skipped when Cadence suddenly ran in followed by Sebastian walking after her with something in his hand. Her hand went to her mouth in a choked sob as the girl approached her father.

"Why is mum crying, dad?" the girl hesitantly asked.

"One day, I will find that out too," Draco said as he watched his wife.

Cadence walked to her mother's side of the bed following Sebastian who was handing something to her. Ginny looked down at it. It was an envelope. A red envelope addressed to her.

Ginny sniffed and looked at it. It just said, Ginny, no address or anything.

"Erm, why don't we leave you alone? Come on you lot, outside." Draco picked up his son and ushered out his daughter and Ginny watched them in silence. When the door clicked shut she opened the envelope, wiping at her face.

She took out the piece of parchment inside and read it through.

_Ginny,_

_Welcome to stage number six. Nobody has ever reached this far. This is where I use my own judgement to see if you deserve your happiness. Not many people do, nor do they want it enough to go after it again instead of just accepting it's all over._

_You asked me if I ever wanted anything for Christmas. The only thing I have ever wanted since I first experienced my, 'gifts,' was to find someone worthy enough. You are that person. So as you have given me this gift. I shall give you yours._

_Behold Ginevra Malfoy, your family and your happiness,_

_Merry Christmas, Ginny, and many more to come._

_Janos Elliot_

The page burst into flames and the door opened slightly. Ginny leaned to the side to see Cadence's head pop around the corner. Sebastian followed her into the room and they waited for the okay to rush to the bed like they always did. Ginny's sob came out as half a laugh and she opened her arms. They ran to it, jumped up and toppled onto her knocking her backwards. The pain in her side when they collided into her made her come into reality.

She was really there.

The door opened once more and Draco this time came in watching the display before him. He crossed his arms and smiled before crossing the room and sitting next to them all. "Is everything alright now?"

She looked at him with red eyes and grinned. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him before just holding him.

"Yes," she said. "Everything is _right as rain_."

THE END


End file.
